Maori Tattoos: The Story Behind Them
You do not find much more powerful and striking tattoos than Maori tattoo designs, they are imbued with powerful significance that comes from Maori culture and history, while also making simply beautiful designs to wear. These days Maori tattoos are so popular and good looking that many people get them purely for the way they look, but it is a mistake to get inked with a Maori tattoo design before you understand exactly what it means because tattoos have very strong individual significance and meaning in Maori culture.
Powerful Meaning
Be sure to look into what these tattoos mean before you choose one to get inked on your body. And understand something about the Maori people and their culture – the Maori are the indigenous Polynesian people in New Zealand. They first arrive in Polynesia just before the 14th century, Where they settled in and developed their society and way of life into something unique. The lives of the Maori went relatively undisrupted on any large and dramatic scale until the arrival of Europeans in the 1700s, which unfortunately led to the Maori tribes declining in number throughout the 1800s. However, this century, specifically since the 1960s Maori culture has been undergoing a popular revival.
Maori tattoo designs especially have become popular around the world. This is in part because Maori tattoos are unique visually and in meaning.
From The Land of The Dead
The story in Maori culture about the origins of Maori tattoos says that tattooing began with a love affair – between a young man named Mataori and a princess of the underworld called Niwareka. As the story goes, the lovers argued one day and Mataori beat Niwareka, who fled from him back to her father’s kingdom in the underworld, called ‘Uetonga’.
Filled with regret, Mataori followed her into to Uetonga, trying to get her forgiveness, on the way he had to face many tasks and challenges. At last he made it to Uetonga. But when he got there Niwareka’s father and family laughed at him because of his appearance, which was bedraggled. He no longer had his face paint and most of his clothes were destroyed. But still he begged for Niwareka’s forgiveness and she eventually accepted his apology. Niwareka’s father was so impressed by Mataori’s earnesty that beforethey returned t 1000 o the overworld, he decided to teach Mataori the art of tattooing.
By: James Jenson
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