How To Avoid Maori Tattoo Design Fakes

What Everyone should know before getting a maori tattoo design

maori tattoo designs found here

 

So you think that getting a tattoo by today’s standards is painful, well traditionally the maori made deep cuts into the skin using brutal tools and yes also the bones of albatrosses, for the maori to be able to distinguish themselves from the other tribes they used the color of the ink to tell the family history and the patterns on the skin would then allow someone to interpret the family history of these patterns What this would essentially do for some one is that they would if they were an elder be able to tell the history by looking at the design the moko and of course the patterning of the skinMost people think that the maori tattoo designs are limited to the face only though this is not true, it was only done on certain peoples faces within the maori tribes, these people were significant within their maori circles.

maori tattoo designs click here

Here is more info on Maori Tribal Tattoos
Many westerners like to imitate Maori tattoo designs and as the saying goes, imitation is a form of flattery, but not in all cases especially when getting a Maori tattoo design. You should never go and copy anything in the form of tattoos from the maoirtanga without having a clue as to what it means, there could be a chance that a certain design belongs to a maori family One thing not to do is to go out into the world of maori tattoo designs and just start copying any design, this could lead to a situation of stealing some maoris family tree
The sad fact is that this is what maoris think of people that steal the maori tattoo designs?
White people are know as “pakeha” and are know for never asking but just taking (in terms of culture and land) they also see most westerns as close minded never seeing other cultures, what is amazing is that the native Americans also said this about the white man in America.
The Maori see maori tattoo designs that are not done right as weakening their spirituality, their culture, and see the west as thieves for not having their own originality when getting maori tattoo designs.
So what does this mean for you when getting a moari tattoo?
Well try not take a Maori tattoo design that you have seen on a chief and copy it!
The best thing to do in this case when seeing a traditional maori tattoo design that you like would be to contact someone in new zealand that actually deals with maori tattoo designs and ask them what they think, yes i know this doesnt seem logical or easy but it is for the sake and request of this culture it is what makes the maori the maori! They need these designs and they need you to respect their requests or you could be contributing to their doom as a culture that might not be around in the next 300 years!It is only when Maori tattoo designs are copied when someone else has already gotten that Maori tattoo already within a Maori tribe that make them feel that their spirituality is being stolen

 

The reason identification through tattoos was important for the maori was that they were able to distinguish each other on the battle fields by having a look at the tattoos on their body, this also allowed them to know their family history if they moved places over centuries

There are still Maoris that can trace their history with these maori tattoossome chiefs can look at a Maori tattoo design, read it like a book, they do this by feeling the texture, looking at the design and the precision that went into getting the tattoo and will be able to trace back some of these Maori family trees. There are maori walking around right now in new zealand that have maori tribal tattoos that date back 2,000 years, if one of these chiefs looked at these designs, they would be able to tell how far back they go and yes some of these designs go back over 2,000 yearsYou see all Maori tattoos have a story and tell a story.

black tribal dragon tattoos found here

 

 

 

 

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