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SHAMANIC SKIN: THE ART OF MAGICAL
TATTOOS For millennia people have practiced tattooing, not only to beautify themselves but to please the spirits which inhabit their world and provide charms against danger. Anthropologist Dr. Lars Krutak has traveled the globe, meeting indigenous people to learn about their unique tattoos and the magical beliefs behind them. BIO Dr. Lars Krutak is a cultural anthropologist, photographer, and writer who has travelled the indigenous world for over ten years documenting the vanishing traditions of tribal tattooing. Krutak first discovered his passion for indelible marking as a graduate student at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where he studied the 2000-year-old tradition of St. Lawrence Island Yupik tattoo amongst the last generation of practitioners for his Master's thesis. Since then, he has appeared on three National Geographic television documentaries, hosted the Discovery Channel series Tattoo Hunter/Global Ink, and was a co-recipient of the 2003 American Book Award in Literature. Today, he works in the Repatriation Office of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Krutak’s books include The Tattooing Arts of Tribal Women (2007, Bennett & Bloom: London, 288pp.) and Kalinga Tattoo: Ancient and Modern Expressions of the Tribal (September 2010, Edition Reuss, Munich, 424pp.) focusing on the Kalinga people of the northern Philippines. Both titles are available for purchase here at Unimax. Please visit Lars’ website for more information www.larskrutak.com. PHOTOS
The Buddhist Way. Before a Thai Buddhist tattoo master or arjan gives a tattoo, he must first read your aura to determine what design you need. Magical tattoos of this type have power because they not only draw on the power of the tattooist, but also his mentors, and the Buddha and his teachings. These are all sources of power (kung). Thais who follow Buddhism operate with a set of assumptions about the nature of the world, the beings and forces within it, and the ways these are related. These beliefs form an integrated system of ideas and propositions that they use to interpret the world and organize their daily actions. In some cases, enemies can be turned into friends with specific tattoos, while others provide their owners with personal protection, commanding and attractive speech, thereby adding to a person’s sacred virtue. Photograph © Lars Krutak
(Left) Magical Protection. This WWII veteran was one of 55 Iban Rangers from the Skrang River region that fought for Allied forces against the Japanese in Sarawak, northern Borneo. Armed with a mandau sword, blowgun, and spears, he bravely fought Japanese soldiers armed with heavy machine guns and grenades. But his tattoos offered him magical protection. Maung, who was a fellow Ranger and the last Iban tattoo artist of the Skrang, created tattoos for many men in this special unit. His tattooing inks were ‘magical’ because Maung’s protector spirit led him to a meteorite in the jungle which he later dipped in every batch of tattooing pigment he ever made. Maung told me that his tattoos protected him from Japanese bullets: “They just went around and through me and I was never wounded.” Remarkably, of the many Iban Rangers of the Skrang River who fought during WWII, all but one returned home alive. Photograph © Lars Krutak (Right) Identity. A Laju Naga women living in Arunachal Pradesh (India) stated: “My ancestors will only recognize me after I die because of my tattoos.” Photograph © Lars Krutak
(Left)
Ritualistic.
The Mahouts of Thailand are men who excel at the capture and training of
wild elephants. They are said to have originated in Cambodia and most of
the elephant commands they use today are a combination of ancient Khmer
and Kuay, both Cambodian languages. Mr. Ya, a Mahout and devout Buddhist, wears an incredible back piece of an elephant (chang) which he received from his village monk. Ya told Krutak that he had this sacred and powerful animal tattooed on his skin because he believed that he would absorb some of the elephant’s power, and to this day he has never been injured. Buddhists believe that the Buddha himself was an elephant before he assumed his human form, making tattoos such as these incredibly powerful, magical, and highly protective. This is important, of course, since Mahouts probably have one of the most dangerous jobs in all of Thailand today. Photograph © Lars Krutak (Right) Good Omens. Of all Kalinga tattoo motifs, centipedes and python scales seem to dominate. Both creatures were considered to be ‘friends of the warriors’ (bulon ti mangayaw) because of the omens they delivered on the warpath. Miguel, a WWII veteran from Tinglayan village who earned his tattoos combating Japanese forces in Luzon (Philippines), wears these and other magical designs like the shield motif on the center of his chest that he said: “blocked the path of my enemies.” Photograph © Lars Krutak 4. Fourth row [aP1030848.jpg] Flower Power. Kayan woman with hornbill, ‘shoots of bamboo’, ‘guardian spirits’, ‘dragon-dog’, and tuba root motifs that are all believed to repel evil spirits. Floral imagery, symbolizing spiritual powers and relationships, permeates every facet of Kayan life. Plants are regarded as a major kind of living thing, sharing the same fundamental properties of life and death as humans. Photograph © Lars Krutak Earning His Stripes. A Khiamniungen Naga warrior from the Myanmar/India border with ‘tiger chest’ tattoo. His V-shaped torso markings not only indicate that he is a successful headhunter, but that he could become ‘tiger-like’ when he struck down his enemies. The collar tattoos were earned for a specific type of military tactic in hand-to-hand combat. Photograph © Lars Krutak
Curative Power. Before the advent of modern medicine, many Kalinga women of the Philippines had small marks tattooed on their necks to cure goiter. Machao of Tulgao village wears these marks but she also suffers from the affliction. Photograph © Lars Krutak Talismans. The intricate tattoos that appear on the wrists of the Mentawai people of Siberut Island, Indonesia, are called ngalou or ‘beads’, but this word also means ‘talisman’. Like the Kayan lukut tattoo of Borneo they ‘tie in’ the soul and keep it close to the body. The rosettes (sepippurat) tattooed on the shoulders of men like shaman Aman Lau Lau (pictured here) symbolize evil bouncing off the body like raindrops from a flower. Photograph © Lars Krutak |