Tattoos

Talking to some of the student and church volunteer interpreters I get a glimpse and perspective on the culture and traditions here in PNG. One such tradition is a right of passage for women in which they receive customary tattoos with designs from their family and tribe upon their first menses. I met many women with these tattoos in various locations with intricate, but now fading designs. Facial tattoos were the most striking, but tattoos on the hands and arms were also common. The interesting thing was that rarely were there any young girls that had tattoos.

The youth (whom I would have thought would embrace tattooing as they do in the US) rarely if ever had tattoos. I asked an interpreter why, and she said that many of the younger generations do not want to be associated by the tribal customs. “Nobody does it anymore around here,” she explained.

A grandmother who had tattoos along her arms told me that the patterns in her tattoos represent her family and community where she comes from. I asked her why her daughter doesn’t have similar tattoos, to which she replied, “I tried to but she had too much pain. Nowdays people are not as strong as before.”

It seems that wherever I go, American culture, ideals, and traditions are mowing over and often replacing those foreign nations. It’s a shame and it seems like we are tainting the world with our capitalism. But when you talk to people, they embrace it, want and yearn for US culture. Maybe it comes from the “grass is greener” phenomenon, or the idea of mimicry and emulation that propels people to improve or assimilate. But there is a subtle tragedy regardless if it is forced or not, in the sense that slowly these beautiful traditions and cultures are loosing what made them unique, that which took years and generations to develop. Almost the same way you hate to hear about endangered species slowly being erased from the senses of species. Maybe it’s a survival of the fittest mentality that improves success and living standards, and maybe for the individuals it’s for the best, there is just something that irks me about this trend. But who am I to judge, my father immigrated and assimilated in part to America and the culture for a better life for him and his family.


Bon Voyage,
~Nic