Tattooing, historically practiced by Native people along the North Pacific coast, is regaining popularity, including as a way of reconnecting with cultural traditions, two Native tattoo artists said during a presentation Monday at the Haines Sheldon Museum.
Nahaan, a Seattle artist with Tlingit and Inupiaq heritage, and Nakkita Trimble of Prince Rupert, B.C., who is of Tlingit and Nisga’a heritage, each said they’ve been working in skin art or “permanent regalia” for about six years.
Alaska Natives practiced at least three different methods of tattooing: “hand-poke,” “skin sewing” and scarification, Nahaan said.
Poking involves dipping individual needles in ink, then poking into skin; “skin sewing” uses a needle and dyed thread pulled through the skin and scarification cuts into skin to insert dye.
Nahaan said that when a Native person comes to him for a traditional design, he typically creates a ceremonial space by praying and singing. Receiving a tattoo with a traditional design has helped individuals suffering from alcohol and drug abuse, he said.
Tattoos can cover up old scars that have continually reminded people of the struggles of their lives. “Covering that up allows them to heal with the power of our culture,” Nahaan said. Tattooing by hand, not with a machine, also can reduce stress for those receiving tattoos, he said.
Nahaan’s mother, Frieda Eide, attended Monday’s presentation. She displayed a tattoo her son created to cover a scar from a leg injury she suffered in a motorcycle accident when her life was out of control.
She said she has been clean and sober four years. “I have my culture. I have a reason to be here. I have my pride.”
Another tattoo Trimble showed during a slide presentation was a Native design that spanned between the collarbones of a woman who wanted her breastfeeding child to have a visual connection to her heritage.
Nahaan said skin sewing may have originated in western Alaska, possibly as an outgrowth of sewing animal skins. Face painting was common among the Tlingit, especially for special events, he said.
“You feel different when you put on face paint. It changes how you interact with others,” he said.
An account in George Thornton Emmons’ “The Tlingit Indians,” says tattooing was “highly developed” among the Haida people but also was found among the Tlingit and Tsimshians, and was “a sign of rank and luxury which only the wealthiest could afford.”
The book’s account said “blue-black” was the only color used historically for tattooing. “The best color was obtained from the ash of the blueberry bush… said to have been mixed with mother’s milk and was pricked into the skin with a bone awl.”
Nahaan and Trimble use modern, sterilized equipment. Neither of the artists practice scarification.