Part 1: Polynesian Tattooing in Context
It has taken me a long time to post this series of blog entries. I’ve had a lot of reason to be hesitant, not in the least of which is because I’m an outsider here as with anywhere else I’ve ever lived, but here especially, cultural sensitivities can cause lots of strife between people based on the concepts of race and class and belonging.
Know then that the first series of blogs I will be posting relate directly to Polynesian style tattooing, the distinction between Polynesian Style and Tribal tattooing and Hawaiian tattooing. This is my experience, my inner life, and if anyone wants to disagree with me about historical facts and cultural practices, they totally have the right to do so, but in their own fucking blog please and thank you; or, come see me in person and set my mind right.
Part 1:
Polynesian Tattooing In Context
My Understanding of the History
Hawai’i is a place of mixed histories, and one cannot talk about the history of tattooing in Hawai’i without setting the stage correctly. In so many ways, being at the center of the Pacific is a lot like being in the center of the world. The largest safe harbor in the Pacific, which covers more than 30% of the surface of the planet, is here in Hawai’i. Not only does that mean Hawai’i is the natural choice to establish a nexus for global trade, but it also means that its very centralness makes it a target for annexation by global powers interested in that trade. The result for the tiny sovereign kingdom is that it has been set on the world stage, caught literally between the two largest economies in the world.
Unable to compete militarily with the superpowers of the world, The Kingdom of Hawaii was forced into illegal annexation by a series of empires who claimed ownership over the Islands, most recently, the United States.
The United States has issued two official apologies: first, for the illegal annexation of the Hawaiian archipelago and second, for the illegal incorporation into statehood of the main islands of the Kingdom. The United States recognizes that to this day there was no attempt on behalf of the residents of the nation to initiate or maintain representation of their state to the United States federal government.
For more information, search for “1993 Clinton Hawaii Apology” and “Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement” so you can catch up on some political history before talking about how this affected tattoo culture.
Welcome back! How are you feeling? Truth hurts sometimes, but history matters. It helps establish an individual in their time and place and informs them as to why they are perceived in certain ways.
I know a guy who doesn’t go into the beach parks because he’s scared of the locals. He lives on the mainland 9 months a year. Him and his wife call other people “Illegals” and rant about how their tax dollars pay for the opulent lifestyle of the refugee population. They are jealous, self-conscious, and cloistered, because deep down, they don’t know how to relate to their own place in history. I’ve tried to tell them time and again that technically all Americans who own property in Hawai’i are illegal, but it doesn’t seem to register. Despite this, I espouse that the average American is not to blame for their willful ignorance. We are all taught in school that Hawai’i was inducted into the United States willingly and that the people there are grateful to be a part of it, and in all honesty, most mainland Americans don’t think about Hawai’i much more than as a place rich people get to go when they go on vacation or book a cruise.
But people actually do live here who want nothing to do with “America.”
In specific, there was a time, when Hawai’i was first in the crosshairs of Babylon. During the 17th century, when the people of Hawai’i first became Christianized, tattooing as an artform was, to put it in an understated way, discouraged.
The Hawai’ian knowledge of the rituals and meanings of their sacred art was reduced substantially. Documents by western artists preserved very little of the tattoo culture, and by the time of Hawaiian Annexation much of the ritual and culture was lost, or maybe, left “undiscovered.”
Since this time, the Hawaiian ritual practices of tattooing has been considered very taboo by both the western and eastern world powers, and the mindset of most of the naturalized population of Hawai’i was against them entirely. Babylon was like Pele then, burning away the institution of Hawai’ian tattooing, scouring all but the toughest seeds, who, in the dark ashes after, sprouted slowly again from the desolation.
In this way, tattoo really became the art of the outcast, the skeptic, and the criminal. Unaccepted by society, the tattooed and the tattoo practitioners struggled to maintain the integrity of their art. It was a dark time for tattooing, and I would say, a dark time to be an individualist. But lo dawned the Age of Aquarius in the 20th century, and suddenly there was a vast amount of people interested in Polynesian tattoo designs.
They were not only people of Hawaiian ancestry, but from the United States and all over the world; people brought up on the Tiki Bar culture of the 60’s, completely ignorant of the history which threatened to destroy an entire culture. Through the commercialization of Hawai’ian culture, this naive population began to demand their version of the sacred art.
It has taken decades of research, discussion, invention, and industry to attempt to recreate a style of tattoo that could represent what Hawai’i means to the people who come here, who live here, and who have some connection to the land here. It’s a special place, in spite of its contentious history. It is a place so special that people are willing to permanently mark upon their bodies that they have been here (and they should be proud because this place is awesome). Practitioners range from new artists who desire to make something new, to older artists striving to preserve the ways of the ancestors, passed down from the time before written history.
One artist I know has said “I want my work to be looked at as authentic as possible, indistinguishable from the real thing, as if it sprang from history,” while another artist I know has said, “I like coming at it from a visual approach, to do what looks the best for the individual client.”
What the destruction and desecration of the old ways has done, essentially, is raze a field in which new styles have the room to grow. Patterns are being pulled into the new Hawai’ian style of tattooing from all over Polynesia, therefore the style is known generally as “Polynesian style tattooing.”
In other places, the tribal nature of indigenous tattoo traditions never died, and so never experienced the disruption that gave birth to what is now being called the Polynesian Tattoo. This is an important distinction to make. Other forms of tribal tattooing which has contributed to this new style are Tongan, Samoan, Marquesean, Tahitian, and even Maori, but it is important to note that although some patterns are identifiably similar, these styles are their own, with living histories and practices that make them distinct. To restate: Polynesian Tattooing pulls patterns from all over Polynesia, but not specifically from any one place, and so lacks distinction as a “tribal” tattoo.
Today, access to the tools needed to do large tattoos is ubiquitous, and so more and more individuals are likely to try and do this artform with or without training or education. When I moved here in 2017, I was doing “Polynesian style” tattoos immediately, and without much more knowledge than what certain patterns meant, and that an aumakua is kinda like a spirit animal (take foot and place forcefully all the fucking way into mouth). I cringe to think about how I used to come at this art form.
But the art is what we make of it.
It’s a little manifestation of history and also a talisman representing where we’ve been. Tattooing is a sacred art, because it literally changes a body for life. It affects the quality of life, here and now and forever, and that’s an important thing to think about. The entire historical aspect of the tattoo might not matter as much to towheaded Joe Shmoe from Illinois who just wants to commemorate his retirement by blowing his wad on a cruise through Hawai’i, but it should matter to the practitioner who’s setting up to do this tattoo after a couple Mai Tais on yet another grueling 12-hour torture-fest at Scab-Merchants R Us.
It has become a ritual human experience, industrialized.
It’s the Age of Aquarius baby, and symbols have become memes, and memes belong to everybody (or so the internet may have us believe).
And I don’t think that’s such a bad thing, although there are some things I am pretty prickly about for my own reasons, now that I can afford to have such scruples.
I think the intention behind the tattoo is important. The meaning behind the tattoo is private, but the message is clear; it says, in glorious intrepid pride, “I went there.”
Tattoos embody the thrill of liberty, and in western culture, the tattoo is an assertion that the self is important and valuable in a society which seems to only value conformity and self-sacrifice to the bowels of a never-ending corporate machine. Tattoo culture is empowering that way, and is a gateway into a brighter future; hopefully, a more accepting future where it’s encouraged to be supportive and accepting of another person’s cultural heritage.
My hot take is that the commercial desire to have a Polynesian tattoo has driven the private desire for authenticity in the approach of many Polynesian style tattooers today. For each artist, authenticity seems to mean something a little different. Some of us honor the Hawai’ian ancestors and try to give back a little of what was lost. Some do it for the thrill, or to establish a parcel of cultural ownership or tribal belonging, or even to broadcast their rebellion against the colonial regimes, or to display their pride in their ‘ohana. Some do it to raise the consciousness of the individuals who seek to understand the history of a place which has treated them so well.
Some just need to get paid so they can keep on living in paradise.
So, I guess, history is a living thing, complex and evolving, and context is important. Intention is important. Respect is important, but also, adaptation is important. The Way moves on, with or without you. Just like this blog.
From Wailua, Kaua’i, Kingdom of Hawai’i, with Aloha,
Brian Sveniker Shay, May 2024
