Tatau

Tatau: A History of Samoan Tattooing is the first publication to examine 3000 years of Samoan tatau. Through a chronology rich with people, encounters and events it describes how Samoan tattooing has been shaped by local and external forces of change over many centuries.

* Traces the origins of tattooing back 3000 years and connects the prehistory of the practice to around 1500 B.C., and the early seafaring ancestors of the Polynesian people. * Examines Samoan tattooing from the 1700s to the 1900, drawing on indigenous accounts and the writings and observations of European explorers, missionaries and colonial officials. It includes stories of the impact of the missionaries on tattooing, Samoan resistance to restricting the practice, the tattooing of Europeans, Tongans and other foreigners. It also examines westerners' fascination with tatau and their efforts to document and display it in institutions in Europe. * Examines the history of Samoan tatau in the 20th century, including the impact of World War One and Two on tattooing, and the expansion of Samoan tattooing in the post war years, the migration and development of Samoan communities overseas and how tatau has changed as a result. * Highlights the interests and engagement of European and American tattooing communities with Samoan tattooists in the 1980s and 1990s. * Features two important ethnographic snapshots or case studies. These are new and detailed contributions to the existing literature that capture the dynamics of contemporary Samoan tattooing as a living art form. * There has been no single publication on Samoan tattooing since Carl Marquand's Die tatowirung beider Geschlechter in Samoa/The tatttooing of both sexes in Samoa. English Translation by Sibyl Ferner. Although reprinted, this book was first published in 1899. The Te Papa Press publication Tatau: Samoan tattooing, New Zealand Art: global culture (2010) was focused primarily on the work a small group of tattooists and the photographic work of Mark Adams and is now out print. * Handsomely designed and packaged. * Highly regarded authors.

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