Cultural appropriation via bodyart

[agentotter]

Awhile back I word-vomited at you posted here about Haida-style tattoos, my love thereof, and my ambivalence about actually getting one as a tattoo. It seemed like sort of a preposterous question to actually take to the tribe -- "Hi, I know nothing about your culture, but I'd like your permission to tattoo your artwork on my body, 'kay?" -- and there's surprisingly little information out there about the etiquette of tattooing Haida art or Haida-inspired designs, or what the designs themselves actually mean. The tribe's totems and crests are intensely personal, but what about a derivative or original design? Is there particular meaning to, for example, one of Bill Reid's pieces of a single animal that can be seen on countless postcards in the northwest? Would making up one's own Haida-inspired art for a tattoo be offensive, in the way that copying or emulating a Maori ta moka is? I ultimately decided that, much as I love the style of the art and no matter how much certain stories speak to me, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to get a tattoo that looks like Haida work. Instead I'm planning to get either celtic/viking-inspired work of my own design, or designs from the Pazyryk mummy, whose society is old enough that nobody's really entirely sure what the symbols mean. (Or if somebody does know what they mean, they are clearly not talking to the scientists who excavated the tombs.)

Anyway, malnpudl and I went to a tattoo convention this past weekend, where I talked with an artist who had a Haida-style frog tattoo in his portfolio, so I'd been pondering it again. Today I stumbled across a great post by a north-west native artist on Deviantart. (I'd be more specific, but I haven't seen from his profile and suchforth whether he's Haida or Tsimshian or what. It's possible I'm blind.) It answers many of my questions quite succinctly. :D You should also have a look at his gallery, because his work is gorgeous. He does do commissions, including tattoos, but I think I'm going to stick to designing my own.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

thank you for the update. i was wondering how this all turned out for you, and i enjoyed that artist's post very much.

[sara]

Yeah, I'd say that post more-or-less reflects the consensus among the Native folks I work with on the NW coast (although down here we don't have the same tattooing traditions that they've got up north). A lot of stories, designs, fishing rights, what have you...those are someone's personal property, and unless the person who owns them has given you the right to use them? It's probably a good idea to step off.

That said, I don't think anyone's got an issue with well-meaning white folks, say, buying modern tribal-made art, craft products, and jewelry. That's what we call economic development. *grin*