By Jamie Ko

Apo Whang-od, otherwise known as Maria Oggay, is an artist and a mababatok (traditional tattoo artist). But before that, she is a member of the Kalinga ethnic group under the Butbut people, from the Kalinga province of the Philippines in the north of the country. But before that, she is a 103-year old village elder who plays the nose flute and feeds the chickens every day.

To understand what she does, it's important to understand where she comes from. In the Philippines, indigenous refers not to the original people of the land but rather, to the tribes and villages that have retained their cultural identity amidst 400+ years of colonization. These tribes and villages have been reduced to the reaches and the people of the highlands, where their past nature of headhunting and isolationist policies have kept their culture and identity much more intact than the lowland religions of the Philippines that now make up the urban cities.

Whang-od comes from the last vestiges of the Butbut people, and for many years, was the last mababatok of her entire population. She was also the first female mababatok — a practice that was reserved solely for men. A mababatok translates to a tattoo artist, but for tribes from Kalinga, tattoos carry much more significance. Whang-od started on the Butbut warriors that protected her village, where killing enemies and protecting their village invoked a tattoo, and on women where they are an important aesthetic.

Armed with a thorn from a Kalamansi tree, a local citrus fruit, black charcoal pwder, water, and a stick, Whang-od was only 15 when she started.

Her original "clients" do not exist anymore. For many years, she was the last tribal tattoo artist.

In the past century as the nation began to develop rapidly, even the landlocked tribes and ethnic groups from the rugged mountains of the Philippines were not immune. It is the classic struggle of time and identity. Whang-od is part of an older generation where the younger generations in her village have grown up more connected to the urban identity of the Philippines rather than their traditional heritage.

The practices and position of traditional warriors and headhunters whom she used to tattoo has faded out. But Whang-od has continued to hammer traditional designs into the skins of almost 20,000 people since then.

REVIVAL AND APPROPRIATION

Whang-od is traditional tattoo artist partly by upbringing, partly by talent. It is also her day job. She brings in almost P5,000 everyday from clients who travel from all around the world. Roughly equivalent to $128 CAD from tattooing alone, this represents a significant sum in the Philippines. With tourists and locals flocking to Kalinga for her tattoos, it's sparked a revival in her culture.

It's also sparked conversations of appropriations, and it's not hard to understand why: these designs were sacred for Butbut warriors meant to empower them are now going on the arms of backpackers and tattoo eunthusiasts. There's an entire conversation about the impacts of travel tourism. But Whang-od disagrees. In an interview with the Philippine Tatler, a local magazine, Whang-od says "I thought, ‘OK, you are not a Butbut, but why shouldn’t you be powerful and protected too?’”

Through Whang-od, traditional tattoo art has not only lived on but has been revived. Under traditional Butbut practices, only bloodline successors are allowed to learn as tattoos from other people are considered to be "infected". Having never married and with no children, there was a serious risk that the art of traditional tattoos would die out with her. Now, her grandniece and various family members have stepped up to become Whang-od's apprentices, ensuring that the art form lives on. They are also all women, continuing to break the tradition that ended with Whang-od.

Whang-od has since been recognized nationally by the government of the Philippines for her significant contributes to the arts and cultural practices of the Philippines. She has been conferred numerous awards, and has recieved government support through these awards to keep her practices alive.

"I thought, ‘OK, you are not a Butbut, but why shouldn’t you be powerful and protected too?’”

— Whang-od on why she chooses to tattoo foreigners

Indigeneity is a hard concept to grasp in the Philippines. But Whang-od's art has sparked something of a reexamination in the Filipino consciousness of what it means to be Filipino and what culture there was before the hundreds of years of colonization. It's also created more interest in preserving cultures like these. For that matter, Whang-od is an extremely significant figure.