The Biology and Health of Tattooing

Paul “Junior” Sulu’ape pounds on his thighs to work the feeling back into them. He and his brothers Peter and Ata are sixth generation tufuga tå tatau, and Paul spends anywhere from 6-12 hours a day, six days a week sitting cross-legged on the floor of a fale giving traditional Samoan tatau in the outdoor Cultural Arts Center in downtown Apia on the island of ‘Upolu, Samoa. As a titled master craftsman, Paul’s proper name is Su’a Sulu’ape Paulo III. They are of the Su’a guild of Samoan tattooists, and the Sulu’ape family have inherited the Su’a title through family ties. Paul’s father is pule in charge of titles and land for the family. Those his father has trained in traditional tatau can earn the Sulu’ape title. Those especially trusted can earn the Su’a title. Paul and his brothers earn them automatically through training as tattooists and being sons of Su’a Sulu’ape Petelo Alaiva’a.

As most experienced tufuga working today at the Cultural Arts Center, Paul serves a head matai or chief for the samaga ceremony that takes place when tatau are completed. His legs are stretched out under a leaf mat as he massages the stiffness out of his legs, as it is inappropriate to point the soles of bare feet at others. Paul grew up in a tattoo family. His grandfather Paulo I passed before he was born, but his uncle Paulo II, father Alaiva’a, uncle Petelo, uncle Lafaele, and brother Peter were all hand tap tattooists in the Samoan tradition. However, culture is not static. Much as tatau has been uniquely maintained in Samoa through the missionary and colonial periods, accommodations have also been made to modernity. To ensure compliance with global sanitary standards. The ‘au or hammer has been redesigned with material that can be sterilized in an autoclave. Paul’s father Alaiva’a introduced these changes in the 1990s. Paul began tattooing with electric machines and picked up hand tapping from watching his father and brother. He has never used the prior tools made with boar’s tusk, which purportedly felt slightly different to use and were more painful to feel. Paul grew up in the 1980s and 1990s and spent as much time in chairs as his father and grandfather spent sitting cross-legged. While the ~25 hours required to complete a pe’a seems almost intolerably painful, the hours spent leaning over body after body tapping in Samoan designs seems even harder. Paul has dedicated himself to preserving his family and cultural heritage but needs acupuncture even as a young man in his twenties for the pain and discomfort of its hardships.

I began working with the Sulu’apes to study the biology and culture of Samoan tatau but was surprised by such additional aspects of cultural embodiment. Tattooing is the perfect topic for anthropological study, given the discipline’s varied foci on culture, biology, linguistics, and archaeology. 

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