Dutdutan Tattoo Festival. This is my third photo essay about

Dutdutan Tattoo Festival.

This is my third photo essay about tattoos. You can see my photo series about the “gang tattoos” here and my photo essay about the “Kalinga tattoos” here.

Dutdutan is the biggest tattoo festival in the Philippines. Every year around the month of September tattoo artists, enthusiasts, supporters and curious first-timers gather to marvel, get inked, compete and experience skin artistry.

Tattoo art was not always part of the alternative scene.Tattooing has been a part of Filipino tribal life since pre-Hispanic colonisation of the Philippine Islands, When the Spanish first landed in the Philippine Islands, they were met by the tribal people of the Visayas, who had full body tattooing, the Spanish dubbed these Islands as "La Isla De Los Pintados" or "The Islands of the Painted Ones".

Tattooing in the Philippines is a tribal form of rank and accomplishments, some tribes believed that tattoos had magical qualities. The more famous tattooed Filipino tribes where the tribal peoples of the mountains of North Luzon, especially among the Bontoc Igorot, Kalinga, and Ifugao peoples, which were infamous for Head-hunting. A tribal member received a tattoo (known as a "Chaklag") which meant they have taken the head of an enemy tribe or warrior.

There are many very different variations, traditions and styles of tattooing in the Philippines, most depend on the region and tribe they come from as each vary.

Filipino tattooing was first documented by the European Spanish explorers as they landed among the Islands in the late 16th century. Before European exploration it was a widespread tradition among the islands.

Tattooing was set around mostly Tribal groups of the Philippines, which tattooing was a sign of Rank and power in the tribal community, many Tattoos could only be attained by accomplishing a task, or passage of rites. Women in Filipino tribal society also traditionally tattooed themselves, and tattooing was seen as a form of beauty among women. Notably women of the Luzon mountain tribes received full arm and chest tattooing, whilst in the Visayas and Mindanao they typically only tattooed their hands and wrists. 

Christianity and western culture eventually supplanted the practice and not until the 90s do we see the rebirth of skin art.

The man behind the Dutdutan Tattoo Festival is Ricky Sta. Ana. He started eleven years ago with a small group of tattoo artists and customers. Today it yearly attracts more than 15,000 people and tattoo artists from all over the world.

(source: Wikipedia)

 

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