Philippe is getting a tattoo. Not a colourful butterfly or a bit of stylish Japanese lettering or his partner Magalie’s name, no. Philippe is going for something with more … heft.
Philippe’s been absorbing South Pacific culture, figuratively, since he moved to Tahiti from France five years ago. Now he’s decided to absorb it more directly, through his skin.
For those who like the idea of an inked epidermis, but feel that something so permanent ought to have more gravitas than, say, a big dollar sign on the back of one calf and Captain America on the other, the Polynesian tattoo has special allure.
The origin of the tatau, rendered as “tattoo” by English explorers when they first came upon it in the 18th century, goes back millennia. It was used to identify your group, record your family history and tell tales of your life. It was aesthetic, protected you against evil and enhanced your sexual attractiveness.
When the English and French missionaries came to Polynesia in the early 1800s, tattoos were one of the things they banned. They also taught Polynesians to dress more demurely, and since you need a lot of naked skin to get the most out of a Polynesian tattoo, that, too, helped the art to wither.
Its revival started in the mid-1980s with people like Aroma Salmon, the man working on Philippe. After so many years, “it’s not easy to re-appropriate the traditions,” Salmon says. He, like others of the first new generation of French Polynesian tattooists, is largely self-taught. There’s an upside to this: in re-inventing, modern tattooists have greater freedom.
“I can’t always explain what I do,” Salmon says. “I feel it.”
A Salmon tattoo may use a fusion of the region’s styles, from Marquesas (“bold, heavy, geometrical”) to Tuamotu (“many lines”) to Society Islands (“light, with more fluidity in the designs”).
“Designs have a power,” says Salmon. The tattoos he is giving Philippe include a turtle – a major South Pacific symbol – as well as tiki eyes, ears and nostrils. The tattoos will confer spiritual protection, but more importantly, “this tattoo is going to give him mana.” Mana is authority, prestige, psychic power.
“When you have mana, you succeed in everything. There is no doubt, no fear.”
Salmon’s shop, Takihiri Tattoo, is one of a half-dozen in Papeete, French Polynesia’s capital and largest town. Takihiri (it means “blood”) is west of rue Cook on Papeete’s waterfront main street, boulevard Pomare. There’s also Siméon Tattoo, on rue du 22 Septembre across from the public market; and Mana‘o Tattoo Shop on rue Leboucher just south of avenue du Prince Hinoi.
The tattoo Philippe is having inscribed will cover most of his right arm and a great deal of the front and back of the right side of his torso. Not all Polynesian tattoos are so massive. Magalie, for example, has just a simple, fernlike design gracing her upper arm. She has no desire for more, she says – unlike Philippe, who, when he’s recovered from this bout, is coming back to have his other side done.
Note: If you want maximum graphic choice, come during the Polynesia Tatau Tattoo Convention (Nov. 8 to 11, 2018 at Pearl Beach Resort in Tahiti), featuring local and international tattooists. For details see www.facebook.com/Polynesia
TatauTattooConvention.
For information on French Polynesia visit the Tahiti Tourisme website at www.tahiti-tourisme.pf.
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