Powerful Maori Tattoo Designs for Men and Women
Maori tattoo designs are quite popular and if one has had the good fortune of seeing such a design, he or she would definitely realise how dramatic and beautiful they are. However, not everyone may understand the real significance of these symbols. Interpreting and understanding these designs is the first step to getting one’s own Maori tattoo designs. The first hurdle a person who wants to get good Maori tattoo designs will face is finding a good design. Most online galleries, while showing many designs, have very few quality designs. This is where internet forums seem to score over even the most popular search engines.
Generally quite distinctive as a rule, Maori tattoo designs are derived from the Maoris in New Zealand. In their culture, tattooing is sacred and an art. This form of tattooing is very distinctive, as it contains many spirals and other curved shapes that all together form an extremely intricate and appealing pattern.
While up close it might appear that they smaller spirals dominate the design, but looking at the design from further away would show that these smaller spirals formed a pattern that was much larger. While they generally cover a person’s face, Maori tattoo designs can be placed on any body part.
There is an elaborate legend as to how the Maori received the art of tattooing. The story goes that a man and Niwareka, the underworld’s princess, fell in love and got married. However, after they got married, the man would beat his newly-wed, and one day she left him and returned back to her home in the underworld. Realising his mistake, the man sought hard to win her back and began to search for her in order to apologise. When he finally reached Niwareka’s father’s kingdom, he had been searching for so long that he was stained and dirty. His wife’s family mocked his appearance, however he was not deterred. The man continued to beg Niwareka to return back with him, until she finally agreed. Before they returned, the man was presented the art of Maori tattoo designs to carry back to his land.
Generally, the time-honoured Maori tattoo designs are extremely intricate and very well planned out designs that also take the person’s personality as well as his or her facial structure into consideration. In the Maori society, tattoos were considered akin to passports. For men, they were used to show their rank and ability in battle. Naturally, it also implied the status and regard that they would receive in society.
Thus, every man would be given a tattoo design that he deserved and also earned. To do otherwise would be considered a very serious insult, and it was considered a serious insult to give a man a tattoo that did not live up to his rank. Generally, Maori women were not tattooed as extensively as Maori men, however a tattoo on the chin or under the lower lip was not uncommon.
The locations of Maori tattoo designs also had great significance. Tattoos placed centrally on the forehead implied the person’s rank. The birth status of the person would generally be represented by a tattoo placed on the jaw. The eyebrows were generally the location for tattoos representing position, while the temple was generally reserved for marital state. Tattoos placed on the sides of the face generally signified the ancestry: the left side reserved for the father’s family, while the right for the mother’s.
Maori tattoo designs are a peek into the fascinating Maori culture, and there is a good amount of information present on it, and so is quite interesting to read about.
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