Samoan tattooing

Tattooing tools plus photographs of pe'a and men tattooing a man's back, Samoa

Top: From images taken by Thomas Andrew, c. 1893–1895, Upolu Apia, Western Samoa; 1998.189.4.2–.3
Below left: Collected by Sidney Beveridge of the London Missionary Society and purchased from Christie's Auction House in 1980; 1980.5.1
Below right: Collected by Robert Gibbings before 1947 and donated by Patience Empson in 1985; 1985.28.7This series of images demonstrates the traditional tattooing tools used in Samoa, the method of using them, and the end result.

The two types of tattooing tool (ausogi'aso) are different in shape and size to create different sorts of effects. Traditionally a Samoan tattooist had four different versions of this tool to call upon. The tool on the right comprises a small bone comb bound with copper wire to a sliver of hard wood. This is hafted with coconut fibre at right angles to a wooden handle. The other tool has a larger bone blade carved with a long edge of fine points and set into a piece of turtleshell. The points would be dipped in a dye made of burnt nuts and the photograph shows how such bladed tools were used with a plain peeled stick mallet (sausau), which was typically formed from the central rib of the coconut palm leaf. The artist used the mallet to tap the handle of the tool (not the blade itself) and to make puncturing easier, an assistant is on hand to hold the skin taut.

Samoa is somewhat unusual in that it has a continuous history of tattooing from the earliest times to the present day. The practice has never been entirely banned or marginalised (or subsequently revived) in the way it has been in New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii or other places in the world that were colonised by Europeans. A folk tale says that two female Siamese twins from Fiji brought tattooing to Samoa. However, another story claims that 'tattoos' were originally painted on the skin but a Samoan adventurer traveled to the kingdom of the spirits who found his painted body decorations a pale imitation of their own tattoos so he learnt their art and returned to Samoa with the knowledge of this new, superior technique.

Whichever way the art of tattooing was learnt, it produced spectacular and distinctive designs. Early accounts speak of explorers and mariners observing the peoples of Samoa from a distance and initially thinking they were clothed, so dense and expansive were some of the tattoos, especially the 'breeches' worn by men on their thighs. These tattoos, known locally as pe'a, stretch from the waist to the knee and consist of symmetrical designs of bands, lozenges, dots and triangles, as well as areas of dense black. Although the details of the design are individual to the wearer, the entire pe'a symbolises a bat whose wings are wrapped around his legs. The inhabitants of nearby Tonga and the Horn Islands probably came to Samoa to learn and adopt this style from local masters (tufuga), and Tongans told members of Cook's expedition that the trouser tattoo provided warriors with magical protection during battle.

Boys are tattooed with the first part of their pe'a in adolescence and although in theory it is possible to undergo the five sessions necessary, working from top to bottom to top again, in as little as ten days, it more commonly takes several weeks due to the pain and healing time. A man might also have to wait until he had sufficient means to pay the tufuga (who was assisted by up to six apprentices), often in hundreds of finely woven mats. Yet even if it took until middle age, completing one's pe'a was important since having only a half-finished one was considered shameful. A completed pe'a used to be a prerequisite to receiving the prestigious matai title and although this is no longer the case, men still choose voluntarily to get the pe'a done in the traditional way. The process remains highly ritualised with many boys and men undergoing the ordeal at the same time to 'share the pain', women singing soothing or rallying songs, and tabus (restrictions on diet or behaviour) being placed on those being tattooed.

Samoan women were (and are) also tattooed on their limbs and behind their knee, but with the designs are lighter, smaller and the process less ritualized. The designs often take the form or repeated stars, zigzags chevrons and dots, representing creatures such as seagulls, jellyfish or caterpillars. A reason for the 'lighter' form of female tattooing is illustrated by the following traditional saying, which suggests that female childbirth is the equal of male tattooing, both providing a comparable experience of pain and achievement:

Tupu le tane, te le tatau

'The man grows up and is tattooed'

Tupu fafine fanafanau

'The woman grows up and she gives birth.'