What Everyone should know before getting a maori tattoo design

Posted on March 8, 2010
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Im going to let you in on something, this is going to let you know what maoris think about the western world when they steal their tattoo designs and especially their maori tattoo designs.

Click here for the best Maori Tribal Tattoos

If you were ever to hear the word “pakeha” said to you while in new zealand i am sure that the tone that you would hear it in would indicate to you that this is not how maoris greet in their own language! No this word is associated with westerners in particular that have stolen maori culture and now more than ever are taking some original tattoo designs that have been in their families for over a thousand years and all without asking, this is what the word “pakeha” means those that take without asking!

The safest thing for anyone like you to do is to perhaps look at a few designs for inspiration but try never ever to copy the design like it is on maoris in newZealand.

The best thing to do in this case when seeing a traditional maori tattoo design that you like would be to contact someone in new zealand that actually deals with maori tattoo designs and ask them what they think, yes i know this doesnt seem logical or easy but it is for the sake and request of this culture it is what makes the maori the maori! They need these designs and they need you to respect their requests or you could be contributing to their doom as a culture that might not be around in the next 300 years!

 

The only time anyone will run into problems with these tattoos is going to copy them straight from one of the elders, big corporations dont like it when someone makes “knock offs” of their merchandise and so it is with this special maori culture, Dont copy rather ask, its easier.

Click here for zodiac signs tattoos.

There are plenty mistakes people make when getting traditional maori tattoo designs and i hope that by the end of this article you will avoid the most common mistakes made today

As millions of people get tattoos in this ever increasing culture of expressiveness, we find that traditional maori tattoo art are being chosen by many

To understand traditional maori tattoo art you need to understand traditional maori tattoo art terminology.

As you know if you were learning about science or any field there will be terms associated with that particular study and so it is with  Maori Tattoo Art 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

Traditionally the Maori used the bones of albatrosses to do this and other cutting tools, these tools cut deep grooved into the skin, the coloring is for the family history and the story telling is the actual patterns on the skin,

 

Which will allow like an elder to look at the pattern and tell you some ones family history based on design, the moko and pattern! See there is more than meets the eye with a maori tattoo design

 

There is a common misconception around the world thinking that maori tattoos in their original sense were only done on the faces, however this is not true, they were also done on peoples bodies, what this allowed them to do was distinguish their chiefs or leaders by having these marking on their faces

zodiac signs can be seen here.

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