Tattooing the Mouth

The more I look into the idea of tattooing the mouth, the more I find it deserves it's own post away from  other 'Tribal' tattoos.

Teeth Lacquering

While not a tattoo per se, it is a long-lasting body modification, just like the art work on the rest of the body. I came across this image in Catherine Legrand's 'Textiles: A World Tour'. It is of a woman of the White Trouser Yao tribe in the Viet Quang, Vietnam. I'll put in her description of the process because its so frickin interesting!!

Teeth Lacquering on a Yao woman, from 'Textiles: A World Tour'

I make the dye by crushing ants wings in lemon juice and letting the mixture steep for seven days... I do it at night and repeat the process at least five timesm until my teeth are really black. In the meantime, I just drink, no eating. I do the whole thing again every year. The dye stops your teeth decaying

In the book it talks about other mountain tribes in the Viet Quang who practice similar techniques. On further investigation, I found this article that says that 'it was believed that only savages, wild animals and the demons of the underworld had long white teeth'. For this reason, it was common for children across Asia to have their teeth filed down or painted as they hit puberty. 

Holi Festival

So as I showed you the ANTM Holi Festival style shoot, I HAVE to show you some of these STUNNING images of the Festival itself!

The Images from the other blog post are here for your perusal ^^ 

Preparing for an assault -  Holi Festival from BigPicture.in

PS... LOOK AT THE LINK UNDER THIS PHOTO!! SUCH AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHS!!

Holi Festival is a major holiday on the Hindi Calendar. On the full moon of our month of march, their Phalgun, they celebrate the coming of spring by throwing coloured powders and waters over one another and intoxicating themselves with rich foods and the inebriating Bhang drink. The streets are a riot of colour and joy as NO ONE works and only the truly dour refuse to join in!

IT'S DIVINE! British culture should celebrate things like this!

Prepared to do colourful battle! from indovacations.net 

The 'Holi Guys' celebrating from TheCampusCompanion.com

This is where it gets intense! From Exploration-Online.co.uk

The two day festival (for the most part) breaks down all the conventional societal boundaries. While the celebrations last, rich and poor men, women and children revel in the festivities and each others company.

Tattooing In the Tribal World

It's hard to know where to start looking for inspiration on "Tribal" tattooing, without becoming overwhelmed at the seemingly infinite number of designs. Thousands of different clans of people use them to show thousands of different messages.

 For religion, to respect the dead, to show age, for protection against evil, to take power from animals, and many more reasons, people have permanently decorated their bodies with unique patterns and shapes.

The Kayapo

Looking at the Kayapo/Kaiapo people again, I saw it mentioned that "After an attack on an enemy village, the chest of the warriors must be tattooed and scraped with the purpose of eliminating the superfluous ‘bad’ and thus dangerous blood".

HOW INTERESTING!!!!! They tattooed themselves while scraping the skin to rid themselves of bad blood from battle!!

That said, I did find this image (admittedly from Tumblr) which showed a young male tattooed...

A Young Kaiapo male, tattoed on his face and torso, from www.tumblr.com

I think it's interesting that he has markings in the same place as the male in the other post... wait... I'll just show you again:

 There must be a significant meaning to painting on the cheeks, shaving the centre of the head, and the red paint used on the eyes and forehead. All three share one or more of these characteristics. The Kayapo are a large group of tribes. I can't see anything to say that all three are form the same tribe. Perhaps it is that they have "trends" as we do... that these stylings are in fashion?!?! Hmmm...

The Moari

A Maori Warrior, taken from EnvironmentalGraffiti.com

The Ta Moko tattooing methods used by Maori tribes in New Zealand are STUNNING! Because of the way that the ink is carved rather than punctured into their sun-darkened skin, the tattoos give the effect of embossing on leather. As though their skin was formed that way. IT'S ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!! Imagine the feel of that under your fingers.

The description from EnvironmentalGraffiti that accompanied this image (->) 

says that "Persons of high social status would receive moko in a prominent place like the face so that their special status was immediately recognisable". So it's almost their uniform!!

Also, it explains that the tattoos are also used as part of the transition to adulthood as they are with so many other tribes around the world. 

textiles

Giving it a go... Tattooing

Let rip on my boyfriend with the same design I took from Jean-Luc. Not as neat as I would have hoped, but I think that was down to lack of practice and the consistency of the product.
I used a MAC 210 liner brush and Kryolan black Aquacolour.
I used that hoping that it wouldn't smudge. But because I had to keep adding water and playing with the viscosity, I often ended up with an over loaded brush.
I would need to use a wet water based product next time, so that it dries and doesn't smudge, but also allows me to keep redipping my brush.

Vogue Germany July 2010

Jacquelyn Jablonski by Sebastian Kim for Vogue Germany

Trying to be Mr. Moerman

Soooooo... I gave it a go! Just tried to copy a little section of Jean-Luc Moerman's work into my sketchbook! I definitely don't have his finesse! Then again, his is digitally edited!

Got to now try this on a person :P WAAAAY MORE FUN!!