This lecture was by far my favorite so far. Its not like I'm tatted up or pierced from head to toe but I've always had an interest in tattoos and have one of my own. The lecture was packed with history about tattooing and piercing that I knew slightly but not nearly to that extent. It got me thinking about if it is a compliment or an insult to tribes when we mimic their tattoos and piercings. The picture above is a 'copy cat' style Maori tribal tattoo. The Maori tribes are part of New Zealand and for them the tattoos are part of special rituals that celebrate specific and special events in a tribe-persons life. They receive their first tattoos as a rite of passage from childhood to adolescent and would be added whenever there were important events in their lives. Tattoos represented courage and strength of the individual and most of the time the men would cover their whole face (as seen in the 'copy-cat' picture above) while the women only covered their cheeks, the lips and sometimes their necks (What Are Maori Tribal Tattoos-Bernice Eker) So is the copying of these tattoos insult or flattery? I think to some extent it probably is insulting because to them those tattoos represent a huge part of their lives. Like the tribe that gets the face tattoos that literally tell their names to other tribe members. They get them for pride reasons and we get them just because we think that they are cool. Just like the chinese word tattoos that we get, I know many people that get them without even researching and just trust that they mean what they are told. They get them because they think they look cool but don't really know what they mean or represent to that culture. It just shows how easily we fall into "trends" without even considering that they may mean something more than just a cool design. I'm not saying that everybody that gets these tribal tattoos don't do the research or history behind them and what they mean to their designated tribes. If somebody take the time to learn about tribal tattooing and decide that they really appreciate the meaning behind something and what it represents to that tribe and decides they would like to get that tattoo then I don't think it should be seen as insulting. I mean people in every different country and culture has adapted something from one another at some point in their history, its only natural, so I don't think that somebody should be penalized or looked down upon if they have done their research and have a real appreciation or interest in the type of tattoo.
Heres an extra link that I thought was kind of interesting, its a brief time line of Tattoos which include some tribal tattoos and descriptions of the types of tattoos those tribes get: A Brief History of Tattoos
No comments:
Post a Comment