Download - Pre colonial artform - Philippine Tattoo
Over 5,000 years ago
The history of traditional tattooing began and diverse as the people who wear them.
Philippine Tattoo Culture
March 17, 1521
Ferdinand Magellan
When Ferdinand Magellan and his men landed on the shores of Homonhon
Island,
“pintados”Natives were called “pintados”,
meaning “painted people”.
The first natives wore tattoos and Magellan mistakenly
thought the designs were painted on.
TattooOriginated from the polynesian term
Tatau(tah-tah-oo or tah-taw)
“ to mark or strike”,
“doing what is right or correct”
The interpretations of the sound of the tapping of the
tattooing tools as the ink is pushed into the skin.
And made its way into the European languages as the word
Extension of a
man’s loincloth or a
woman’s skirt.
Extension of a
man’s loincloth or a
woman’s skirt.
Tattoo Artist
“ nobility and
bravery ”
Tattoomale
Female
“ Manfatek ”
“ Manbatek ”“ Mambabatok ”
“ Bumafatek ”
“ Manfattong ”
tribal form
of rankaccomplishments
magical qualities
Tattoo : Artists would be paid in advance with livestock, heirloom beads
or coined silver, etc
a comb of needles set at a right angle to the length of an L-shaped stick.
Tattoo : Equipments
An Adze-like tool was made of wood or
carabao horn ( Philippine water buffalo)
with needles made of iron, steel, brass,
bamboo or thorns of the orange tree
lashed to the tool.
Tattooing needles of the Pacific
Islands were usually made from the
bones of fishes, birds and small
animals.
The needles were razor sharp and capable of executing very precise lines and designs.
BONTOCThey are the people who live in the mountainous areas of Benguet,
Ifugao, Mounatin Province and Kalinga-Apayao.
TATTOO
"Chaklag"
“Pongo”“Fatek”
Tattooed chest of the
headhunter / headtaker
The tattooed arms
of men and women
Tattooed on the Hands of an
old women
‘FATEK’ HAND TATTOO
FATEK is the word used to call the tattoo on the hands of the old women in Bontoc.
It beautifies the body.
Hand tattooing is a distinct Bontoc ‘body’ art. The practice has ended but the remnants of this art is still seen in the hands of an old women of Bontoc.
Contemporary
The modern “tribal” tattoo now has come full of circle and is worn
by the descendants of the very people who originally inspired the
modern art. Due to its popularity, others have sought to emulate
the trend by creating “tattoo flash” of these sacred designs. Tattoo
flash is a drawn or printed copy of a tattoo design on paper, made
stirctly to be sold. Often new tribal tattoos are stylized versions or
copies of tattoos used by indigenous people.