Tribal Tattoo in Indonesia
Tribal tattoos in Indonesia exists since the
arrival of people from Asia, long before people in pacific do tattoos.
And by times of acculturation and migration, tattooing spread to pacific and brought
some similar technics and design. Like tattoos on leg-thigh that can
be seen on Burmese, Mentawai, Maori, Dayak, or Samoa, and those black tattoos that can be
identified as an authentic tribal tattoos. But there are some
difrerent technic in tattoo
making, Asian tribes like Burmese, Thai, Cambodian, Japan use single needle for tattooing (sometime the needle almost like a
spear) and the way they do tattoo is to poke needle into skin. And Pacific tribes, they use
“a group of
needles” (this group of needles comes in different shapes and
motives) for tattooing & then tapping it with
a wooden stick-hammer. This same kind of technic that been use also in
all Pasific region. Indonesian tribes, they
combine
those two ways of tattooing, Borneo-Dayak, Mentawai Siberut, Sumba, they use single needle
(or a group of needles that become a
big round single needle for blocking) with tapping. Needles are made of fishbone, nails, sewing
needle, lemon tree spikes or pandanus spikes (thorns). Inks are made from ashes from cooking-pot, or
from some certain plants dyes. These days only in Mentawai -Siberut island and
Dayak-Kalimantan that still doing tattoos as their daily ritual
activities. On other islands, tattoos are “just” like
personal symbol.
Modern tattooing in Indonesia
Since the arrival of Moslem and Christianity
that banned anything, tattoos are almost vanished. Tattoos only
can be seen only on people that stands outside normal society. And in New Order era (
1980-1990 ) is when police
shot all tattooed people to dead also known as Petrus-Penembak Misterius.
This shock therapy almost kills tattoo cultures. Many people try to remove their tattoos
by ironing or put bleach or acid on their tattoo. In some cases, a lot of young tattooed-man have
to get in-line to be identified by police officer. Since that,
modern tattooing had to go underground. Not long after, a major breakthrough
comes in brought by rock n roll band like Red Hot Chili Pepper and Guns N Roses that drag
indo tattoo into surface. RHCP with their cover album on “Sex Blood
Sugar Magik” that has some tattoo photos, made many
of young indos back to tattoos again and they are not afraid to show their tattoos in public.
Since that time some modern tattoo studio has been open for public. Java Tattoo Club-Indonesia August 31-02
JTC
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