Highly intricate, traditionally inspired ink designs that have influenced tattooing here and overseas are once again celebrated in print with a new book featuring the work of veteran photographer Mark Adams.
Tatau: Samoan Tattoo, New Zealand Art, Global Culture is a reprint in a larger, hardback format of 2010′s edition, and was much needed to improve the reproduction of prints, says Adams on Te Papa’s website.
The photos, mostly taken between 1978 and 2005, include the work of Su’a Sulu’ape Paulo II, a leading and innovative figure in modern Samoan tattooing, who died in 1999. With his brother Petelo and cousin Su’a Tavui Pasina Iosefo Ah Ken, he gained international recognition and inspired tattooists in North America, Europe and elsewhere. Adams and Paulo met in 1978 and Adams began photographing the tufuga tātatau (tattooing experts) at work in homes and garages across Auckland, often depicting domestic scenes with men showing off their pe’a – full tattoo – which remains an important mark of cultural identity.
In an introductory essay to the new edition, Sean Mallon, senior curator Pacific cultures at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, writes that he once asked a man why he chose to get a pe’a. “He looked at me as if I was stupid: ‘Because I am Samoan!’”
Some of the plates feature palagi (Europeans) in the Netherlands and Sweden wearing the full pe’a – Samoan tattooists were sought out in the 1980s and 90s by enthusiasts in Europe and the United States. The new edition includes a series of images of Auckland surgeon Dr John Dunn being tattooed by Su’a Sega’ula Fuiavailili Lawrence Ah Ching in 2014, as well as an essay by Peter Brunt, of Sāmoan and English descent, from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, and conversations with Paulo and Adams.
