Tattoo and body manipulation is as old as the first men. As soon as we could decorate our body, we did. Whether it's for beauty, health, religious or social reasons, our body is our temple, and we like to make our temple look nice, for the gods or for ourselves. It all started with a stick and some pointy object, add some color, dip in, and start to draw.
In Nepal, the art of tattooing is a long story. From the taru women who tattoo their entire bodies, to the Newar who etch their family names, to hill tribes, tattoos are part of nepale culture.
Here are some pictures of women face tattoos taken during a trip from Khaptad National park to Rara lac. These women have various reasons for tattooing their faces. One story, is that once upon a time, in King's days, the King could go to any village and choose any woman he wanted to take with him. So, to keep the women they wanted, the villages started to tattoo the women's faces. The King seeing this ugly marks, would stay away from these disfigured ladies. Another reason for face tattoo is medical. As some woman explained to us, she used to have headaches. So, she fixed her head by the dots which served as nails.
This old tradition is slowly getting lost in time, and the new generation girls laughs when we ask if they tattoo their faces:"It's for the old ladies!". Yet, going around the mountains, we saw a few young girls wearing the traditional marks. As the tattoo scene is getting bigger and bigger, let's hope that the new generation artists will not forget their cultural heritage, and keep well and alive the nepale tattoo arts...
No comments:
Post a Comment