Unique Custom...

Do you know about Maori tribe? The Maori people are the indigenous people of New Zealand. It is believed that the Maori migrated from Polynesia in canoes around the 9th century to 13th century AD and landed in a tiny island(okey,not so tiny) now known as New Zealand.



Maori tribe practiced many traditional customs, one of them are tattooing their skins with traditional arts called Ta Moko.Tattooing is part of their traditional custom and considered as sacred event. Maori tattooing would usually start at adolescence, and was used to celebrate important events throughout life. The first tattoo marks the transition from childhood to adulthood.



Tattooing process usually done together with the traditional flute music performance and poems chanting in order to help the wearer having less pain while his or her skin was cut extensively with curved patterns. The Maori men wore Ta Moko arts on their faces, buttocks and thighs. The women would carve their Polynesia tattoo lines on the chins and lips. All these Maori tribal tattoos were visual signs that convey the wearers' tribal identity, social status, family ranking, ancestry and spirituality.(So,it is the best to avoid using Maori tattoo designs, because its consider to insult maori tribe.)




This unique custom has been practiced for over one thousand years. For those who did not wear any Ta Moko were considered to have no social status. The instrument used for carving the skin for making tattoos was usually a sharp-edge bone chisel, and the process in creating tattoos was long and very painful.The wearer would have to fast and stay away from eating solid foods and avoid sex intimacy until the wounds on the face were fully healed.


Personally we think, Maori tribe’s tattooing custom is very interesting and unique. We, as the young Malaysian generation, should be proud and appreciate with our own customs and try to preserve it because our customs make us who we are.