Taiwanese hand-tapping tattooist tries to revive indigenous culture

Record ID: 1411472

  • Title: Taiwanese hand-tapping tattooist tries to revive indigenous culture
  • Date: 2nd May 2019
  • Summary: YILAN, TAIWAN (RECENT) (REUTERS) TATTOO ARTIST CUDJUY PATJIDRES'S UPPER BODY WITH TRADITIONAL TATTOOS TATTOOS HUT WHERE PATJIDRES WORKS PATJIDRES SKETCHING TATTOO OUTLINES ONTO TATTOO RECIPIENT VATU LIN'S LEG (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) PAIWAN TRADITIONAL TATTOO ARTIST, CUDJUY PATJUDRE, SAYING: "I always have a very serious conversation with people who want to have a traditional tattoo done and will meet them in person. It is necessary that they do their own research. You are the one that will have the tattoo on your body, I am just the person who helps you execute the work. As the tattoos are on your body, they need to reflect your identity and social status. So this is why you need to talk to your family and your tribe's leader. Only after all family members have discussed and agreed that this pattern fits you, you can come back to me." PATJIDRES TYING NEEDLE TO WOODEN HANDLE HAND-TAPPING IN PROGRESS PATJIDRES HAND-TAPPING AND TATTOOING HAND-TAPPING TOOLS (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) PAIWAN TRADITIONAL TATTOO ARTIST, CUDJUY PATJUDRE, SAYING: "Within our Paiwan culture, the Deinagkistrodon (pit viper) represents an ancestral spirit and guardian god. We have snakes, the sun and male eagles as guardian gods. This is to say, this is quite special, these triangular shapes represent the feathers of eagle wings." HAND-TAPPING OF TRIANGULAR SHAPE IN PROGRESS VARIOUS OF PATJIDRES HAND-TAPPING, WORKING ON TATTOOS (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) PAIWAN TRADITIONAL TATTOO ARTIST, CUDJUY PATJUDRE, SAYING: "I hope that each aboriginal tribe, including the Atayal, Sediq, Truku, Puyuma, Rukai and Paiwan have their own tattoo artist to pass down their own respective tattoo patterns." LIN LYING DOWN WITH PAINFUL EXPRESSION
  • Embargoed: 16th May 2019 12:21
  • Keywords: tattooist tattoo artist lost traditional indigenous Paiwan aboriginal tribe hand-tapping
  • Location: YILAN, KAOHSIUNG, TAIWAN
  • City: YILAN, KAOHSIUNG, TAIWAN
  • Country: Taiwan
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA001ADCG6DH
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES
    Lightly striking a steel needle, the 'tap-tap' sound echoing in the crisp mountain air, Cudjuy Patjidres, a traditional "hand-tapping" tattoo artist in Taiwan, said he is devoted to reviving an important culture of his ancestors.
    The tattoo technique of hand-tapping as practised by the Paiwan tribe, the second-largest indigenous group in Taiwan, works without using a tattoo machine. The artist steeps needles, either a single needle for more minuscule work or a line of needles for the larger patterns, in ink and then drive them into the skin by tapping on the wooden handle that they are attached to.
    Traditional indigenous tattoo culture in Taiwan had almost vanished after decades of being banned by first Japanese colonizers and later the Chinese Nationalist government.
    After practising tattoo art for a while, Patjidres discovered traditional indigenous tattoos in a Japanese book, prompting him to research the topic and kick off his efforts to revive the lost tradition.
    Before its banishment, traditional tattoo pigment was made of charred millet stalks mixed with soot taken from the bottom of a cooking pot. Nowadays Patjidres uses modern ink along his wooden handle and steel needles.
    The art of hand-tap tattooing still lives on in some indigenous cultures in Samoa, the Philippines, Hawaii and other islands in the Pacific. Patjidres believes that being a part of countries with Austronesian indigenous heritage, Taiwanese indigenous tribes should make their own traditional tattoos world renown and preserve the culture for later generations.
    "I hope that each aboriginal tribe, including the Atayal, Sediq, Truku, Puyuma, Rukai and Paiwan have their own tattoo artist to pass down their own respective tattoo patterns," he told Reuters.
    (Production: I-Hwa Cheng, Fabian Hamacher)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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