Sunday, January 9, 2011

Tattoo who two


 The Mentawai people of Siberut are a tattoo'd lot. For them it's all about nature and the soul and good spirits.

To the modern day American it's all about hipness and cool (and I speak with some authority on this subject, having recently received an iPad).

The native peoples tattoo's often tell a story (the tattoos on the Dyak tells the stories of head hunting expeditions). The late 20th and early 21st century tattootools is geared toward the "me me me" as much as it is to the "I belong to this tribe and this is our story".

I recently encountered a group of tatootools, who had just finished the feast of the Big Mac ceremony, as they darted out into the wildeSUV's, dashing across and through their grazing lanes, sending the herd into a panic.

This caused a great snorting from the large beasts. They will be huffing and puffing about the tattootools in the comments and letters to the editor for weeks to come.

The Bicycle Film Festival (who knew) has a film called "Empire" that captures the tatootools in the wild.

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