Inking Tradition
A project commissioned by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) for Senator Loren Legarda's DAYAW show
Photographs and Art Direction by Dino Dimar
Written by Floy Quintos
She is undoubtedly, the poster girl for Philippine traditional arts. With the growing popularity of tattooing, and queues of visitors making the trip to Buscalan, in Kalinga, justto get inked. Whang-od Oggay surely deserves a recognition for her efforts at popularizing the once-dying art of the Kalinga “batok.”
A celebration of a successful raid against neighboring tribes or families.
While the history of tattooing, much less the specific batok method of the Kalinga, cannot be traced to an accurate date, archival data shows that it was practiced as far back as precolonial times. Originally, tattoos were provided to indicate rank and combat prowess, and it was only when they have been tattooed can a man be considered maingor, a warrior. The tattooing ritual would be a public event, a celebration of a successful raid against neighboring tribes or families. It is here that the Kalinga men literally earned their stripes. For women, these tattoos would be found on the wives of successful maingor, and it would not be uncommon for other female family members to be tattooed as well.
Both the inking ingredients and the methods used to apply the ink to the skin have not changed for hundreds of years. The ink is a mixture of soot or ash mixed with water, applied using at horn that is driven into the skin through a repeated tapping procedure. The designs come from a selection specific to the tattoo artist, geometric shapes and designs mimicking those found in nature, such as the scales of a python.This the process that Whang-Od has preserved, not only for her people, but foran eager audience of outsiders.
Initially, Whang-Od earned very little, if any at all, from tattooing – a service expected as a member of her community. But then people from outside the mountains of Buscalan travel miles in their search for the last Kalinga mambabatok, and here is where the narrative began to change. More and more of her tattoos are being given not just to Filipinos outside of her community, but to an ever-expanding circle of enthusiasts from all over the world. What was once a spiritual and strongly ritualistic tradition has given way to commercial and personal interests, forcing the elderly tattoo artist to cease including chants and prayers during the procedure.
This sort of balancing act isn’t only a problem that Whang-od is forced to face. As recent as 2017, the elderly artisan finds herself in the middle of a controversy surrounding the commercialization of her talents, with arguments coming from both sides concerning the moral and ethical implications of such a venture.
By allowing these tattoos to be given to people not of the Kalinga, to people who are able to just schedule and finance it, do they lose their cultural significance and weight as a symbol of her people? Should an organization, no matter how benevolent their intent, displace a national living treasure?
Or is this a pre-emptive means of preserving the dying art, like the last few performances before are vered artist decides to retire? These questions, unfortunately, frame Whang-od as a woman of no agency, forced into service by a faceless corporation.
Whang-od has taken her teenage grandnieces under her wing as apprentices, mirroring her own apprenticeship at 15 to her father. And while Whang-od is factually a cultural icon, she is also a human being who is allowed to practice her craft in ways that she chooses to, in places that she chooses to.
So many questions. All which frame a bigger discussion on how Philippine traditional arts can survive at the crossroads where commerce, tradition and cultural appropriation meet. But none of these lingering issues dampened the Kalinga sky on June 25, 2018 when theNational Commission on Culture and the Arts conferred on Whang-Od , the Dangalng Haraya award. In a crowded gym in Tabuk, with National Artist Virgilio Almario himself in attendance, the tattoo artist who had become both famous and controversial, at last entered the realm of Immortals.
This story has been published in the book called Dayaw.
Senator Loren Legarda proposed the idea for the Dayaw documentary series, which is now available as a book, as part of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts' (NCCA) roadmap. Using print and broadcast media, the objective is to popularise both our tangible and intangible cultural legacy.
Senator Loren Legarda is a supporter of Philippine arts and culture as well as the preservation of our national legacy.
For the book, Dino has been commissioned as both the art director and photographer.
For assignment and print inquiry, please send a message to dinoldimar@gmail.com
All images are copyrighted property of Dino Dimar © All rights reserved
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