ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the location of the tattoo world in Tahitian society. It illustrates how gender, ethnic and age differences are marked in Tahitian society today. The chapter introduces Tahitian tattooists and their different working styles. It analyzes the ethnography of the organization of tattooing and locates the tattooists in Tahitian society. The chapter considers how the form and practice of tattooing are related to gender, ethnic and age differences in the society. Masculinity is embodied throughout a man’s life, but it is established mostly during adolescence or taure’are’a. Both female and male Tahitians experience taure’are’a during their late teens and early twenties although for some taure’are’a lasts longer. The chapter introduces tattooists who have been transforming as well as consolidating the practice and form of Tahitian tattooing in their networks. It proposes that ‘Tahitian tattoo culture’ is located in four arenas of Tahitian society: taure’are’a lifestyle, ma’ohi identity-making particularly in artisan activities, global tattooing and prison culture.
