Pe'a Samoa

So I got a little tatoo the other day... I went to see a tatoo artist named Suluape who is known in international tatoo circles as one of the better traditional style Samoan tatooists. I went out to his house and brought a case of beer with me as a gift before we started (part of the culture and the man likes to drink Vailima), we talked for awhile then went back into an open fale with a couple of his boys, and before I knew it I was laying down with the guys stretching the skin while he tapped a stick with sharpened boars teeth (that he also raises in the back) on the end with another stick to inject the ink in a series of tiny dots.

All in all it took about four hours with one break halfway through. It was a really good experience and to be honest the actual tapping didn't hurt very much. Afterwards I had a fever until I went to sleep but now I feel good. It's really swollen today and sore as you maybe can tell from the pictures.

Going up to his place and seeing him it is hard to believe that he goes around the world to give tatoos. While he works he has kids lite cigarettes for him and he smokes no handed. Dogs were running in and out of the open house, kids playing everywhere, all while I was laying there watching coconut and breadfruit trees sway in the wind; it made it all that more fun and rewarding to have a real Samoan experience. Mom, dad, please don't be mad at me and Mor Fa please don't disown me.

The tatoo is actually the upper portion of the Samoan naval to knees tatoo that men get when they finish puberty. The star-like symbol sitting by itself on the front of my bicep is where the bellybutton would be and the back of my arm would be the lower back. It had to be stretched a little differently because my arm isn't exactly in proportion to a waist. All the lines of symbols mean different things but Suluape isn't much of a talker so I'll ask someone else who knows.

My host-family's reaction has been entertaining. They of course love it, as Samoans are into tatoos in general. They couldn't believe that I had it done the traditional way and not with a gun. My host-father has been showing me how to take care of it. He gave me a fofo which is like a heavy massage on it. It hurt like hell but is good because the ink tends to bleed if you don't work it out because I'm told that with the tapping technique it gets under the plasma when a normal tatoo does not. When I tried to go to sleep with a bandage around it so that the ink didn't bleed all over my sheets my host-parents about freaked out. Apparently your not supposed to do that. They kept telling me "no, no, you'll get sores, you'll get sores!" So I just threw down a lavalava on my bed and let it run. I am going to go with local knowledge with this one.