Tattoos In Polynesia
Across the Pacific, tattooing has always been more than body art, it’s identity, heritage, and story. Each island carries their own name and practice: in Hawai‘i it is kākau, in Samoa tatau, in Tonga tatatau, and in Aotearoa (New Zealand) tā moko. While the styles differ, they are united in meaning, strength, lineage, and belonging. Divided by land but united by sea.
“Tattoo”
The Origin of “Tattoo”
The word tattoo itself begins in Polynesia. When Captain Cook’s crew first landed in Tahiti in 1769, they witnessed a practice unlike anything in Europe: skin being marked with patterns that told stories of ancestry, strength, and belonging. The Tahitian word they heard was tatau, a sound that echoed “ta-tau” both the tap of the tools and the tradition itself.
They carried that word back across the world in journals with early versions written as “tattow”, where it entered English as “tattoo” later on. From there, sailors spread both the art and the name to every port they touched. Which previously people would use “marked”, “painted”, or “scarring” in different parts of the world.
Today, when people everywhere say the word tattoo, they’re speaking a piece of Polynesian language and legacy.