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Non-Headhunters with Headhunter tattoos

Christian — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:05:22 +0000

Keone Nunes, a traditional tattoo artist from Hawaii, sent in a letter to TattooRoadTrip.com about his trip to visit Whang Od in the Kalinga province. Whang Od is the last Kalinga tattoo artist who was recently featured in the GMA special below.

They asked her a very interesting question:

We asked what she thought of the trend of Filipino-American men putting on traditional Kalinga chest tattoos. She was not happy. She said that, if they did not take a head or participate in a head hunt but adorned themselves with these chest tattoos, they would either die before their time or go crazy.

What do you think? I’ve heard people give the reasoning that I’m a “Modern headhunter”, I hunt heads for knowledge, I work as a recruiter so I do hunt heads or I’m a rapper and I hunt heads of wack MCs. I guess you can spin it in a modern context but it’s a gray area. I do think that we need to keep our indigenous traditions from disappearing but how do we do so without either offending? Do we wait for the real headhunters to die out? Nobody takes heads anymore, so should the art of chest tattoos be limited to sketches or does the meaning need to be adapted to modern society?

read the rest of the letter

View the rest of the videos

Ang Huling Mambabatok – The last tattoo artist from Kalinga

Christian — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:20:42 +0000

A documentary about the last tattoo artist from Kalinga.

Part 1

Part 2

Part3

Part4

Sariling Atin

guest — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:23:49 +0000

Some of Filipinos still sees tattoos as dirty, sign of rebellion, for jailed people and more. Well in fact, this is a dying art for tribal people which have tattoos all over their body as sign of strength, boldness and their identity. \\n\\nIn this photo is Kalaw from Cordillera. He said that we should be proud of our ancestors for art and expression like this.

Traditional Kalinga Tattoo

Christian — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:08:31 +0000

Traditional Kalinga Tattoo, originally uploaded by Citizen Designer | Raneen Nosh.