I was never going to get a tattoo, they really held no appeal, and as a wise friend of mine once said ‘they are a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling’. Who’s to say that in a year, two years or ten years time that feeling isn’t relevant anymore and you are stuck with something you regret?

But what if that ‘temporary feeling’ is something that you really must not forget, but one that is easily lost in the daily hustle and bustle of everyday life? Surely then a physical reminder, something you see everyday, serves a higher purpose. I think it does. So now I have a tattoo. More accurately I have a Patutiki which is the Marquesan word for a tattoo!

The idea came up when we first arrived in the Marquesas and we met with friends and fellow cruisers who had the most amazing tattoo on her back. A full manta ray, created from intricate traditional patterns. She spoke of an excellent artist ashore who not only created the art on her back, but literally wrote the book on the subject of traditional Marquesas tattoo. A month later Mia gave me said same book for my birthday, it makes for an interesting read as it talks about the history, how it was banned by the church and ultimately rediscovered in the 1970s. It also provided a ‘dictionary’ for what each of the symbols meant. I said to myself that if we returned for the cyclone season I would talk to him about a tattoo.

We turned up just after Christmas but unfortunately Teiki (the author and artist) was away on vacation with his family, so I waited for his return. In that time I read through his book and tried to identify the symbols which had significance for my life, family and our current adventure. So with cheat sheet in hand I went to talk to him. He was very friendly and we talked for a while, I gave him my list of ideas and we talked about where to put the tattoo. The obvious choice was between shoulder and leg – after a bit of thinking I picked leg.

I agreed to show up at 9am on Friday morning and Mia and Teo were keen to tag along. When we got there Teiki handed me a orange disposable razor and told me to go around the back and shave my leg, but be careful, if I cut myself he can’t tattoo that area! I have to admit, I now understand why ladies prefer to shave in the bath than standing in the shower, it’s harder than it looks! 

Back in the room, freshly shaved, we talked more about styles before I finally got up on the table for him to start marking up my leg with red and blue pens. He outlined the rough form for the tattoo before I lay down and he worked on the details. It took about an hour for him to product a pen only version, we discussed it over a cup of coffee and agreed a minor alteration, switching one symbol for another. Then it was time to use the real ink!

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It took about 4 hours of inking, between 10:30 and about 14:30 with only a couple of short breaks to stretch my back. The pain was unusual, it wasn’t like getting an injection which some had told me, it was more like getting scratched, repeatedly, by a slightly blunted knife. At first it was OK, but after several hours my skin was getting bore and tired for the pain and even wiping my leg with a sterile wipe was painful. I’d also been told that getting large areas of black ink filled in was the most painful part, personally I found the fine detail work with a very thin needle to be worse. Teiki just smiled and explained that the women he tattoo’d claimed it was about the same as ripping a wax strip off your leg hairs. I guess I’m complaining about nothing!

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Mia and Teo popped back occasionally to check on the progress, in between they kindly walked the two miles up the hill to the pharmacy to get the antiseptic liquid and baby bottom cream he recommended for the week after while it was healing. A local guy, covered in tattoos popped his head in at one point, smiled and returned with a local flower for me. He didn’t speak any english but I’m hoping it was meant as ‘welcome to the community’. 

While Teiki was working, we chatted a bit about the history of tattooing and his work trying to catalog and create a dictionary for these symbols. He was frustrated that the Marquesan style was being taken by artists in Tahiti and sold as ‘Tahiti style’ tattoos rather than Marquesan. It would seem that the traditional styles from the society islands have been lost in time and were never documented. For most of the historic documentation we Russian research ships to thank, over 200 years ago.

Below are some images which explain the means behind each of the symbols.

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