Tattooing has been an integral part of cultures all over the world for centuries. It was and continues to be used to identify, distinguish, and in some cases beautify the adorned. Many people today view tattoos as the ultimate form of self-expression using bold colors, their favorite quotes or intricate designs to convey a message about themselves and their lives to the world while others just get them on a whim. In ancient times, however, they may have had a bit less aesthetic value.
This ancient form of body modification has been found on mummies from Europe to Africa, but tattooing was also widely practiced in Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions by early Paleo-Eskimo people as well. From Alaska to Greenland, mummies like those of several 15th century Inuit women discovered at the Qialakitsoq (“little sky”) grave-site in 1972, as well as archaeological artifacts show that tattooed women were a prominent fixture of the culture. After the devastating spread of colonialism and the forced assimilation in later years throughout the arctic region however, the practice of Inuit tattooing, especially the common facial tattooing found on most women had all but vanished.
Tattooing was new to modern Western society and highly stigmatized. The first documented encounter that Europeans had with tattooed people of North America happened in 1576 at Forbisher Bay. It was described by Sir. Martin Forbisher is as follows:
127 our experts are availableright now
In 1566 a tattooed Canadian Inuit woman and her unmarked child were kidnapped by French Sailors in the Labrador and brought to Antwerp in Belgium. Shortly thereafter, the “savage” family dressed in sealskins, was put on display for money in the Hauge, and in other locales in Germany. Although the fate of the woman and child is not known illustrated handbills survive advertising their exhibition and the incredible “true” circumstances surrounding their capture, including the death of the woman’s husband-a giant- at the hands of European mariners: This woman with her husband and little child were met by the French…and the husband was shot through his body with an arrow.
However he would not surrender but took his stand bravery to defend himself [and his family]; and in the Skirmish he was severely wounded in the side by another Frenchman with a broadsword, then he took his own blood from his side in his hand and licked it out of his hand, and took his stand to defend himself more fiercely than before. Finally, he was struck and wounded in his throat so severely that he fell to the ground and died from his wound. This man was 12 feet tall and had in 12 days killed 11 people with his own hand in… order to eat them, because they like to eat no flesh better than human flesh.
And as they seized the woman she took her stand as if she were completely raving and mad because of her child whom she would have to leave behind…[T]hen they took the woman with her child and brought her away…The paint marks she has on her face are entirely blue, like sky blue, and these the husband makes on his wife [when he takes her for his wife] so that he recognized her or otherwise they run among one another like beasts, and the marks cannot be taken off again with any substance… Let us thank God the almighty for His blessings that He has enlightened us with His word so that we are not such savage people and man-eaters as are in this district, that this woman was captured and brought out of there since she knows nothing. That s of the true God but lives almost more wickedly than beasts. God grant that she be converted to acknowledge Him. Amen.
The woman and her child’s story placed on a souvenir woodblock is the earliest known rendering of a tattooed Native North American drawn from life, and a popular novelty among Europeans where they were displayed.
The wildly embellished story about the encounter between the woman’s family and the Europeans can be seen on the block, which begins with the murder of her husband and ends highlighting the Eurocentric attitudes tied with colonialism. Dehumanization is a major component to the story as well, with the husband being described as a twelve feet tall cannibal who tattooed his wife, so she could be easily recognized, as he supposedly was unable to recognize her without the markings. The writer ends the story with emphasis thanking God for Christianity because he and the rest of the “civilized world” had been enlightened and were not like the family they destroyed. It was the apparent goal of the writer to save the “savage” woman through the word of God. Unfortunately, the fate of the woman and child are unknown. Even today there are still some strong negative feelings about the practice, especially for women in North America.
However, there are several women pushing for Inuit traditional tattooing’s return. Some are tattooing friends and family while others are talking with the elders to gather important information about the history that would otherwise be lost. Many are spreading awareness through revitalization projects in their communities to empower women by reviving the tradition to make their communal bonds even stronger. Understanding the history, methods of application and importance of these tattoos to the modern-day bearers will help others understand why the continuation of women’s tattooing is so vital to Inuit and Inupiat cultural preservation.
The earliest known portrayal of a human is this miniature mask found on Devon Island in Nunavut, Canada dating back 3,500 years ago. It is believed to be the face of a Paleo-Eskimo woman with radial forehead, cheek and chin markings, suggesting that tattooing was a very important part of their lives. The women sometimes wore jewelry as well, but many simply used the tattoos on their faces as well as other parts of the body to add beauty, much like today. The resources that descendants of paleo-Eskimo people relied on played a major role in their tattooing. Now there are several diverse groups across the sub-arctic and arctic regions, but many retain similar tattooing styles. Outside of tattooing for beauty, most were used for a spiritual connection to ancestors or to reinforce traditional beliefs. They were also used to keep negative spirits away, to rid the body of pain or illness, or to enhance a specific body function or show hunting prowess. Some people that preformed the ritual of traditional tattooing were shamans, but most were elder women that held extremely high status in their group.
The designs themselves usually didn’t hold specific meaning for the people, but the materials used to make the pigments and the prayers said during the ceremonies did. As the face is the first thing we see, it seems only fitting that people would convey messages through facial markings, especially in cold climates where layers of clothing would obscure many other body marks outside of the hands. These facial marks could convey a lot about a woman like her age without her having to speak a word. Most women’s tattoos were symmetrical but if they weren’t they were considered guardian tattoos called talisman and were seen as symbols of good fortune as well as lucky. Other stick like human figures also adorned some women’s faces. They meant to represent protection from evil or dangerous spirits that may bring death or destruction to the household or community.
Some women bore the tattoos associated with their husbands great hunting skill, and had more lines added as the years and hunting seasons progressed. Inuit and Greenland Inuit women had a symbol that looked like a V shape in the middle of the forehead that was called a fluke to resemble a whale’s tail. In many of their mythologies, the soul of a whale was thought to be a young woman, so getting that marking connected the woman with the earth and sea spirit. Tattooing was mainly related to women of the arctic and subarctic communities. A popular saying among elders was “you can’t take a wife until you’ve learned how to build an igloo,” similar to the thought that a girl hadn’t matured enough to marry until her face was tattooed. Having marks meant she possessed all of the domestic skills needed before marriage like how to gather water, create useful clothing, gather materials from hunted animals and light a seal oil lamp.
It was rare for a woman that was of age not to have any tattoos and this was seen as a taboo with serious implications in the community as well as the afterlife. This punishment that followed is from either the Sun deity,Siqiniq, or the sea deity, Naliajuk . Many of the Arctic and Sub-Artic people share similar stories about the origin of these traditional tattoos and how they relate to both spirits, but each one differs slightly. The Sun and Moon story would be considered taboo in modern western society but understanding the significance of each part of the story gives insight into the process and meaning for the multitude of women receiving these markings. The story recorded by naturalist Lucien M. Turner is as follows:
The sun is supposed to be a woman. The moon is a man and the brother of the woman who is the sun. She was accustomed to lie on her bed in the house [of her parents] and was finally visited during the night by a man whom she could never discover the identity. She determined to ascertain who it was and in order to do so blackened her nipples with a mixture of oil and lampblack. She was visited again and when the man applied his lips to her breast they became black. The next morning she discovered to her horror that her own brother had the mark on his lips. Her emoternation knew no bounds and her parents discovered her agitation and made her reveal the cause. The parents were so indignant that they upbraided them and the girl in her shame fled from the village at night. As she ran past the fire she seized an ember and fled beyond the earth. Her brother pursued her and so the sparks fell from the torch [and] they became the stars in the sky. The brother pursued her but is able to overtake her except on rare occasions. These occasions are eclipses. When the moon wanes from sight the brother is supposed to be hiding for the approach of his sister.
The tattoos were given when a girl reach puberty and began menstruation. The process was said to make her pure, as it is seen in many cultures around the world that menstruation is unclean and frowned upon. (There is a symbolic nature of the materials used in tattooing to the sun and moon story. The seal oil lamp soot marked her journey from child to adulthood. Joint tattoos were also used in many places when a girl reached puberty. After she had the tattoo ritual done she was confined to a hut for up to a year to make sure she was pure enough to be around her people again and not put the community at risk of low food gathering. The sea deity is revered by many communities as she is the one who brought forth sea creatures for hunting and daily survival. One elder recounted the following story as the origin of the Naliajuk:
Once in times long ago past people…were going across the water and had made rafts of kayaks tied together. They were many and were in haste to get away to new hunting grounds. And there was not much room on the rafts they tied together.
At the village there was a little [orphan] girl whose name was Naliajuk. She jumped out on to the raft together with the other boys and girls, but no one cared about her, no one was related to her, and so they seized her and threw her into the water. In vain she tried to get hold of the edge of the raft; they cut the tips of her fingers off, and lo! As she sank to the bottom the stumps of her finger tips became alive in the water and bobbed up around the raft like seals. That was how the seals came. But Naliajuk herself sank to the bottom of the sea. There she became a spirit, the Sea Spirit, and she became the mother of the sea beasts, because the seals had formed out of her fingers that were cut off. And she also became mistress of everything else alive, the land beasts too, that mankind had to hunt.
Hand tattoos are important to the Inuit because of her story. According to beliefs, she is the one that either lets people pass on to the Land of Day, or heaven, or keeps them in purgatory until they can atone for their wrongdoings. She judges all of their deeds and punishes those who have committed the worst offenses, which for women would be hiding menstruation from the community, hiding a miscarriage or abortion. Hiding menstruation was believed to put the community at risk because the animals would sense the woman’s impurity and stay away, making hunting impossible or extremely difficult. As this kind of skin modification was not the most pleasant experience to endure especially with the tools used, many women had to be forced or scared into the practice with threats of the sea spirit burning them in the underworld for being unmarked. I found the parallels between heaven, hell and purgatory that existed in these areas prior to colonial Christian influence very notable.
Another possible punishment in another region of the arctic for having an unmarked body was being sent to Niquimiut. A passage from Tattoo Traditions of Native North America: Ancient and Contemporary Expressions of Identity states “…all those women who did not care to suffer a little in order that they may be pretty…” would be sent to Niquimiut, also called the land of the crestfallen,” where they spent an eternity with their heads hanging down, smoke bellowing out of their throats. In this place, which is said to be just below our feet the, women are thought to be crouched down with heads to chest, unable to move except to occasionally catch a passing butterfly to eat for all eternity. It seems as though physical beauty signified safe passage to the afterlife, while being unmarked made the woman ugly and worthy of damnation to the underworld.
Different regions used many methods of application as well as tools to perform their skin markings. Most were created without the use of pre-drawn designs, just like the method some modern tattoo artists use today. One tattoo kit that was documented included a needle made of copper connected to a wood piece and thin wooden stick inserted into tattoo pigment, made of seal skin. Usually tattoo pigment was a mixture of seal oil soot and urine. The urine used to make the pigment was usually provided by an elder woman, and in many societies, they believed it held magical powers that could ward off evil spirits depending on its usage.
Other spiritual ingredients included lampblack and graphite. Many tattooists used awls or hand-picking methods to apply the permanent designs. These hand-picking tattoos were very painful and took a long time. To create the marks, the woman would use a needle to create a hole in the skin then she would add soot mixed with blubber to create the mark. Another method called skin-stitch required the elder woman to “stitch “the young woman’s skin and add pigment after. Some women used sharp objects to create small incisions and followed that up with a wooden needle to insert the pigment. The process for chin tattooing was most painful involving sinew which is made from a variety of animal tendons dipped in the pigment then passed underneath and through the skin. The following passage explains how the tattoo is carried out:
“Having endured it brings prestige. The woman doing the tattooing lifts a bit of her patient’s skin between her own thumb and first finger and then pushes the point of the awl through it so that the skin is punctured in two places. She then immediately pushes through the holes a one-foot strand of sinew previously prepared by wetting with water (except for the initial end left still so it can be pushed through the holes in the skin) and a coating of charcoal. The process is then repeated, using the second hole of the first puncture as the first hole for the second puncture. The stiff end of the sinew is put back into the second hole of the first puncture and pushed out the second hole of the second puncture. When pulled tight by pulling on both ends of the strand, no part remains to pass through the second hole of the first puncture. The procedure continues in accordance with the length of the tattoo line desired. When the tattooing is done on the chin, the ends of the strand of charcoal coated sinew are finally cut off close to the holes from which they emerge. The chin swells up and the girl eats only cold soup (if a girl at hot food at this time her chin would rot). In a few days, the swelling goes down and the sinew strand is pulled out. After about two days the end of the strand of pulled a little to test it. When right to come out, it will pull easily. The taboo on eating is then ended.”
By the early 1900’s chin tattooing had just about died out, but many women were still getting other forms of facial tattoos. Storing the needles in between the process was also very important, and the needle would not be re-used until the tattoo healed. If there was an incident where the woman who received the tattoo died from an infection, the tattoo needle would be buried with her.
The influence of Christianity by missionaries as well as the forcing of many children to go to Inuit residential schools, much like the boarding schools that Native Americans were forced to go to in the United States, had a great impact on the decline of body marking and the transfer of knowledge to descendants. Edmund Peck, a missionary from England, had a great influence on Inuit culture. He built the first Anglican church on Baffin Island in 1894. In doing so, he converted many people and did away with traditional customs like tattooing and these became sinful. Peck brought written language, as well as translated the bible into Inuktitut and emphasized verses such as Leviticus 19:28 which states: “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD”.
Once thought of as a mark of the transition to womanhood and a connection to the community, tattoos became shameful and taboo in a newly Christian society. The forced assimilation of children in Arctic communities to residential schools after 1939 created a disconnect between they and the elders when they were forced to learn English and adopt Eurocentric cultural ideals. The Inuit were now seen as “Indians”, so the initiative to preserve native life ended and the Canadian government withdrew the previous laws that excluded government influence on their communities. Where children would be going out with their parents and grandparents to learn about the land and customary practices, they were forced to forget everything they knew about their culture and assimilate.
Because of this assimilation, many children grew up hating Inuit culture as they were taught that the nomadic way of life was un-civilized compared to European life. This father increased the separation of young and old, with many children probably viewing their parents tattoos as primitive marks of a time before people became Christians. Though there was a halt in tattooing for many years after, there has been a great effort to keep Inuit women’s tattooing alive and bring back some of the history that was almost completely stripped away forever.
Alethea Aggiuq Arnaquq-Baril, an Inuit activist, filmmaker and producer from Iqaluit is one of the women heading the effort to preserve the tattooing tradition of her people. She attended Sheridan College in Ontario and has a film production company called Unikkaat Studios Inc. in Iqaluit. She made a documentary in 2010 titled “Tunnit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos”, to not only interview elders about the almost lost tradition but gather information for her own personal quest for receiving these markings. She holds a Meritorious Service Medal for her ongoing activist efforts.
As Inuit cultural preservation is extremely important to her, she did not take the documentary and its sensitive nature lightly, having limited screening of the documentary since its debut to curb instances of appropriation of these traditional tattoos by non- Inuit’s. Her work has received recognition in Canada as well as festivals around the world and she has been nominated for multiple awards. Arnaquq-Baril interviewed 56 elders in nine Baffin and Netsilik communities about the methods of tattooing, the meaning behind them, and how the tradition eventually faded away. Unfortunately, before she made it Taloyoak to interview the last surviving Nunavut Inuk woman to receive traditional skin-stitched tattoos, Mary Tallu, she had passed on, which made Arnaquq-Barils mission even more crucial.
Another Inuit woman steering the effort is Angela Hovak Johnston. After searching for someone to do her traditional tattoos and not having any luck, she decided to learn hand stitching methods as well as tattoo gun techniques from skilled artists that she found. This lack of traditional tattooist lead to her becoming one herself and so far, she has tattooed well over one-hundred women. The creator of the Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project received her facial tattoos in 2008,and since then has been tattooing other women in communities across the Arctic and sub-arctic. Her seventy-page book titled Reawakening our ancestors’ lines Revitalizing Inuit Traditional Tattooing highlights the thoughts and feelings of twenty-six women she tattooed after her project began, in their own words. She says that she feels a deeper connection to her heritage and seeing the emotion involved when she tattoos the women makes her want to continue her work.
Hovak Johnston says she was inspired by the sight of tattoos at a young age when she saw and elder woman in her community of Kugluktuk, Nunavut with traditional Inuit tattoos. She didn’t see her often, but the woman left a lasting impression. “She didn’t even have to say anything, I just felt her power in her presence and how interesting and beautiful she looked and just being beside her made a big impact on me,” Johnston said of the woman. It was sometime after she saw the woman that she decided to get tattoos herself one day. Even after going to a residential school, she was still determined to get her traditional markings. When she learned of Mary Tallu, ‘s passing, she realized something should be done to preserve the knowledge and let younger women know about the importance. “It hit me hard, kind of like a stab, because I didn’t want it to be something you just read about in books, or in photographs that you just see,” she said.
That revelation spawned the idea for the Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project and she, like Arnaquq-Baril, received a Meritorious Service Medal because of her efforts. She made sure she had a good support system around her for such a powerful and lifechanging experience, as tattooing could bring up deep-rooted emotions.” There were a couple times I just had to stop and take in the moment and think, ‘Oh my gosh, this is really happening,” “It’s how I envisioned it and it’s how it should be.” Her tattoos are a direct reflection of her ties to her Inuit identity and womanhood. “In everything I do, I try to include the culture and to live it and to feel it and to breathe your culture,” she stated. “It’s so important because traditions can disappear so quickly.”
Artist Holly Nordlum, an Iñupiaq artist, and Greenlandic Inuit artist Maya Jacobsen are putting together their own documentary about traditional tattooing called Tupik Mi. Tupik means tattoo,” Nordlum explained in an interview“and then ‘mi’ is a shortened version of muit, which means ‘people.’ Nordlum sees the revival of women’s chin tattoos as a display of pride and reverence. Nordlum found Jacobsen on a search for someone to perform traditional tattooing, as she is one of the few traditional tattooists around, via Facebook, and the two have been close friends since then. Their initial meeting is what spawned the Tupik Mi project.
Jacobsen has been studying and tattooing traditional tattoos for years after researching the group of women found in the Greedland burial site back in the 70’s and began using poking and stitching methods. She examined their markings and noticed that their forehead, cheek, and chin tattoos were similar to what she had learned to do as a child. “I have, like, literature, and then I have, what I call ‘from the horse’s mouth, and that is the mummies.” She feels that in order to understand tattooing, you must understand lives of Inuit women. She tied her experience with receiving her chin tattoo to a spiritual connection to her mother, saying that she had a vision of her during the tattooing process and it changed her life. “And my mind was just wrapped around all of these thousands of fore-mothers I must have had that had tattoos,” Jacobsen said. “My heart was beating so hard, and I cried, and I was shaking.”
Though she tries to stick with traditional methods and designs, so does add her own interpretation to the tattoos as a lot of people rediscovering traditional tattoos are doing. She does this because of the loose meanings associated with many of the symbols themselves, and that a lot of the history of the tattoo meanings are inaccurate or undocumented. As of today, Jacobsen is tattooing in Anchorage, Alaska. Unfortunately, she and Nordlum have run into a few issues along the way while trying to get backing for Tupik Mi. Lack of funding and resistance from the Alaskan government because of a conflict between the state’s regulation of the tattoo industry and indigenous rights has stalled the project.
Though there is limited research on Inuit women’s tattoo practices, many people are showing interest and stirring up a revival of the ancient practice. From studying the Paleo-Eskimo people of the ancient past to Inuit people all over the arctic and sub-arctic region in later years, people are eager to remember forgotten practices almost pushed out of the culture by Christian missionaries and Residential School assimilation efforts. Across the region, women are relearning the old methods of skin stitching and hand picking as well as learning to apply the designs with modern technology. Sharing stories about ancient meanings adds an increased connection to the elders passing on their knowledge.
Ongoing revitalization efforts as well as documentaries are helping young Inuit women and old alike reconnect with their ancestors and each other while discovering what it means to proudly display their heritage one their sleeves, (or faces!) Hopefully this newly revitalized practice continues to gain momentum and future generations will realize how important it is to hold on to culture and renew it, as once a part is lost and the elders that held the knowledge of old traditions pass on, that piece of the culture will be lost to history.
