Monday, May 19, 2008

What is a Samoan Tattoo?

Hi everyone!

This is an addition of my blog for this week. A very simple question is:

WHAT IS A SAMOAN TATTOO?

A Samoan tattoo is one with the Samoan traditional motifs or designs, which are tattooed to the man's body, usually from the bottom half of the back, down towards the knees. The Samoan tattoo, also known as a pe'a, covers the entire buttocks, as well as the sides of the torso, and travels directly over the groin area.

For a Samoan tatoo, only black colour was used, from the pigment which was produced from candle nut, then scrape the soot off and mix it with water.
However, tattoo artists of today have done some changes in how to produce the ink, depending on their knowledge of the job.

2 comments:

Ji-Eun said...

I have questions.
I know that tattoo is English word, Pe'a is tattoo in Samoan right? but Tatau is also English word or Samoan word?
Can woman also have a tattoo in your culture?

poeelama said...

Hi ji-eun!

Very good question - Tatau is a Samoan word for Tattoo ----- Pe'a is another Samoan word which has the same meaning as the word Tatau.
Therefore, Tatau and Pe'a are the same.
I'm sure you are getting the meaning now.
A Samoan woman has no tattoo but she has what is called a malu. A malu is from the knees, going upwards for about 50 cm. and have lighter designs than a pe'a.