How To Avoid Maori Tattoo Design Fakes
Are You makeing These Mistakes With Your Maori Tattoo Design?
maori tribal tattoos click here
In this maori tattoo design article i am going to let you know a few things about maori tattoo designs and what you should try avoid.
You will find it helpful when going ahead and eventually deciding on what Maori Tattoo Art you want to get
There are so many mistakes made by people when choosing Maori Tattoo Art that i see everyday, you will be able to avoid these common pitfalls by following these easy tips
It seems as many people are choosing to be tattooed today and you will notice that Maori Tattoo Art are often the choice made by people looking for tribal tattoos
What you will find is that traditional maori tattoo art have be come so popular that they are often the first choice of tattoos when people want to get a tattoo
maori tribal tattoos click here
In today’s world with so many tattoo artists and so many people looking to get a tattoos, you will find them going through and looking at other cultures in the hope of borrowing or worse of stealing other peoples designs to come up with their own tattoo designsThis can lead to artistic flair, but not so when choosing Maori Tattoo Art .
To understand traditional maori tattoo designs you need to understand Maori Tattoo Art terminology.Just like in every field on life there are terms associated with the way people do things, so it is with traditional maori tattoo designs. For the family identification part of the maori culture, those that form part of the ta moko family group are known as whakapapa
The reason identification through tattoos was important for the maori was that they were able to distinguish each other on the battle fields by having a look at the tattoos on their body, this also allowed them to know their family history if they moved places over centuries
These maori tattoos are still used by Some maori chiefs to recall their history and ancestorysome chiefs can look at a Maori tattoo design, read it like a book, they do this by feeling the texture, looking at the design and the precision that went into getting the tattoo and will be able to trace back some of these Maori family trees. There are maori walking around right now in new zealand that have maori tribal tattoos that date back 2,000 years, if one of these chiefs looked at these designs, they would be able to tell how far back they go and yes some of these designs go back over 2,000 yearsYou see all Maori tattoos have a story and tell a story.
So you have learnt about the “ta” form of the maori language now its time to introduce the “moko” part that is the important part as it involves the chiseling of the tattoo into the skin
So you think that getting a tattoo by today’s standards is painful, well traditionally the maori made deep cuts into the skin using brutal tools and yes also the bones of albatrosses, for the maori to be able to distinguish themselves from the other tribes they used the color of the ink to tell the family history and the patterns on the skin would then allow someone to interpret the family history of these patterns So lets say you were an elder in a maori circle someone who knew a lot about maori history if, if some one brought you a design, you would be able to by looking at the design the moko and the maori tribal tattoo pattern be able to trace their family history, much like someone using computers to find out their ancestry, they would be able to do the sameMost people think that the maori tattoo designs are limited to the face only though this is not true, it was only done on certain peoples faces within the maori tribes, these people were significant within their maori circles.
These are the best Maori Tribal Tattoos
It is now common for westerners to have maori tattoo designs, this can be seen as a way of promoting the maori culture, however do you know that is a form of stealing maori tradition and culture?One should never just take words, images or symbols from the maoritanga or Maori culture with out knowing what they are doing, as to the Maori this is seen as an insult, can you imagine walking around with some maoris family history?This is what will happen if you just go out there and start copying maori tattoo designs
The sad fact is that this is what maoris think of people that steal the maori tattoo designs?
White people are know as “pakeha” and are know for never asking but just taking (in terms of culture and land) they also see most westerns as close minded never seeing other cultures, what is amazing is that the native Americans also said this about the white man in America.
From the maoris point of view taking from their culture without asking them or having a design on you that is a replica is a weakening of their identity in terms of their culture, westernising them further through the stealing of their heritage and also they feel that they will eventually have nothing left that is sacred and original for them to hold onto in the future.
So now that you understand some of these ideas and concepts how is this going to help you in finding the right maori tattoo?
The simplest thing you can do is not to go out and copy the first maori tattoo design that you see on a maori in new zealand for starters, you would be surprised how many people have done this!
The quickest way to get a traditional maori tattoo design would be to contact someone in new zealand who is in charge of a tribe or a tribal tattoo artist and ask if the design that you are looking at is not someones design already, though this might seem dumb as mentioned we have to be sensitive to a culture that has shrunk over the last 200 years, with the internet this could be done in a matter of hours Maoris are really only annoyed when you just take, they might even grant you a special maori tattoo for asking, do you want to know how many people would actually ask for a design? Not many! That’s right if you ask you will more likely be given the go ahead for a special maori tattoo design, this way it will be even more unique and you will have a one of a kind maori tattoo design that you can be proud of
August 7, 2010
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Posted by Jam Man
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