ABSTRACT
Ta moko is the process; moko is the outcome. Ta moko is the art of decorative scarification, unique to the Maori people of Aotearoa/New Zealand. It involves the chiseling of human skin and the insertion of pigment, and is related to tatau, the Pacific tradition of puncturing and staining the flesh. Mataora was a jealous mortal chief who won the heart of Niwareka, a woman from the Underworld. Unsure of her love, he abused her, and she fled home to her father, the patriarch Uetonga. The tohunga ta moko, or practitioner, chiseled into the skin with a steady, chanted rhythm; this often had a soporific effect on the recipient, who merged into a trance state also caused by the acute pain. Maori society was essentially a warrior society, made up of regional clans or iwi, each descended from named crew members of the great migrant voyaging canoes.
