Maori Tattooing Practices

The Maoris of New Zealand had several art forms that were distinctive to their culture. These art forms included woodcarving, cloak weaving, and tattooing. The most unusual of these crafts was the tattooing, which they traditionally placed on their faces, thighs, and buttocks. They tattooed by dipping a sharpened piece of bone into pigment, which was then tapped, on the area of skin to be tattooed, with a mallet. This art form was practiced universally among the Maoris. (Hiroa, 1949). All societies have intricacies in their cultures. One of the Maori's intricacies was that they had ritual…