Part 3.

TA: Samoa is the only place that has a continuous history of tattooing from ancient to modern times. In Samoa, tattooing was never banned by the government. The missionaries tried to discourage it, but they couldn't ban it. There are certain Samoans today who think that it shouldn't be done. Samoa is extremely Christian, and they are quite strict in some ways. That isn't the case in the Marquesas or Tahiti.

SG: It seems ironic that they have this heavy Christian tradition and yet they coninued to tattoo.

TA: Right. And they still continue to drink kava or ava-ava. There are some very weird contradictions and dichotomies within Samoan culture.

SG: Are the Samoans still using the traditional hand tools for tattooing?

TA: Yes. There are some that are using home-made machines. Near a fruit market there is a little stand or booth where someone is doing machine tattoos. Samoan style, but mostly arm bands using a home-made machine. I only know of two tattooists in Samoa that has a professional machines-- Petelo Suluape and another named Watti.

SG: So what about the designs? Do they tattoo traditional Samoan designs?

TA: For the most part now they're only doing taditional designs. There was a period when a lot of Samoans were getting western style tattoos. Many of them were either in the merchant marine or in the military. They didn't get the tattoos in Samoa, but when they traveled to other countries. And there are some amateurs in Samoa who have done some very poor quality imitations of American style tattoo designs. But primarily what you see today is traditional Samoan designs.

SG: Is that related to an interest in Samoan history and traditional culture?

TA: To some degree. But less so than in those areas where there is a colonial presence, like Tahiti, the Marquesas, Hawai'i and New Zealand.

SG: What's going on in New Zealand today?

TA: New Zealand has a really strong revivial. Like elsewhere in the Pacific, the tattooing that was done continuously was western or American style, so that kept tattooing alive as part of the subculture. But I think it was largely through the efforts of Roger Ingerton in the 1970's and '80's that the Maori people got a renewed interest in the traditional designs. Roger still tattoos there, but it was his early work that was so instrumental in the Maori revival. Roger is a Westerner, but he's respected by the Maori community. He started tattooing a lot of Maori with traditional designs. He was probably the first tattoo artist in 150 years to do a facial moko on a Maori person. Roger's work was perhaps the springboard for the renaissance of Maori tattoo. But that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for this whole resurgence of the indigenous culture: the language, indigenous rights, to some degree the sovereignty and independence movements, the fight for traditional land back. So you can't really isolate it. It wasn't soley Roger's presence that's responsible. But the Maori people were really ready for a change. Many Maori artists have since learned to tattoo. There are today maybe a dozen doing ancestoral moko, that is, ancient geneological tattoo designs.

SG: Are there Maori women with traditional chin tattoos?

TA: There are. There's been quite a few done in the last two decades.

SG: How many facial mokos would you say are walking around in New Zealand?

TA: I couldn't say. I do know that Roger had done two or three women by about 1992, and there have been probably dozens done by Maori artists since then.

SG: How about full facial tattoos on men?

TA: Yes, men's facial moko is also being revived, but I see two things happening. There are two revivals happening and they are very different: the gang thing, and then there is the more traditional Maori movement. There are gangs in Auckland in the more urban areas that are doing facial tattoos as their gang symbol. But there are also - and again, this is a different phenomenon in a different group of people - there are some Maori largely in the north island who certainly aren't affiliated with the gangs, like the type of gangs that were portrayed in the movie "Once Were Warriors". That movie is not very representative of the Maori community. Many Maori are well-grounded, balanced people who are successfully merging their ancient cultural values with their modern lifestyles. For example, many Maori people are involved with the revivial of the language and getting it taught in schools. In New Zealand there are language immersion schools where the kids are learning only in Maori, learning Maori history. These Maori wear moko as a true mark of respect for thier roots.

SG: And have you traveled to Rapa Nui ( Easter Island) several times? What's happening there in the way of tattooing?

TA: When I first arrived there in 1991, according to our estimates, about one in five of every Rapa Nui men between the ages of 15 and 25 wore a tattoo, but all of it was hand-poked single-needle stuff, done with a sewing needle tied to a match stick. Very few of them were traditional, or even Rapa Nui designs. Most were initials and western symbols, although a few bore tattoos with designs that were used in ancient times on the island. These are not necessarily traditional tattoo designs, but rather, the designs are based largely on the old rock art and wooden carvings. The type of tattoos that were done in ancient times on Rapa Nui were full body. There were no motifs that could be isolated and incorporated into a band or on a shoulder. So modern Rapa Nui people have turned to the rock art and other sources.

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