TRANSFORMATION OF TATTOO ART: HISTORY OF INDONESIA TATTO

In Indonesia, the Mentawai people in the Mentawai archipelago, the Dayak tribe in Kalimantan, and the Sumba tribe in NTB, have known tattoos since ancient times.

For the Mentawai people, tattoos are a spirit of life. in 1992 at the Mentawai cultural center on Siberut Island, there were at least four tattoo positions there. One position of the tattoo is to show identity and differences in social status or profession. Sikerei shaman tattoos, for example, are different from expert hunting tattoos. Hunting experts are known by drawing animals, such as pigs, deer, monkeys, birds or crocodiles. Sikerei is known from the star of a sibling bash on his body.

For the Mentawai people, tattoos also have a function as a symbol of natural balance. In that society, objects such as stones, animals and plants must be enshrined on the body. They assume all things have a soul. Another function of tattoo is beauty. Mentawai people are also free to tattoo the body in accordance with their creativity.

The position of the tattoo is governed by the beliefs of the Mentawai tribe, 'Arat Sabulungan'. This term comes from the word sa (se) or a group, as well as bulung or leaf. A collection of leaves was arranged in a circle made from palm shoots or thatch, believed to have a supernatural power or ketse. This is then used as a medium for worship of the Kabagat Koat (Sea God), Tai Ka-leleu (the spirit of the forest and mountains), and Tai Ka Manua (the spirits of the air). Arat Sabulungan is used in every ceremony of birth, marriage, treatment, moving house, and tattooing. When a boy enters puberty, age 11-12, parents call sikerei and rimata (chieftain). They will negotiate to determine the day and month of the implementation of the tattooing. After that, choose a tattoo artist. Sipatiti is not a position based on the appointment of the community, such as a shaman or chief, but a male profession. His expertise must be paid with a pig. Before the tattooing, there will be a punen enegat, aka sikerei-led initiation ceremony, in Puturukat (Sipatiti's gallery). The boy's body to be tattooed then began to be drawn with a stick. The sketch on the body is then pierced with a wooden stem needle. The wooden handle is beaten slowly with a wooden beater to insert the coloring agent into the skin layer. The dye used is a mixture of banana leaves and coconut shell charcoal. Promise of Borneo Crow Early tattooing or sakoyuan paypay, it is done at the base of the arm. When he was an adult, his tattoo was followed by a durukat pattern on the chest, a titi takep in the hand, a thigh on the thighs and legs, a puso titi on the stomach, then a titi teytey on the waist and back.

Mentawai tattoos are closely related to the Dongson culture in Vietnam. Allegedly, this is where the Mentawai people came from. From that ancestral land, they sailed to the Pacific Ocean and New Zealand. As a result, similar motifs were also found in several tribes in Hawaii, the Marquesas Islands, the Rapa Nui tribe in the Easter Islands, and the Maori in New Zealand. In Indonesia, the Mentawai tattoo tradition is more democratic than the Dayak tattoo in Kalimantan. In Dayak culture, tattoos indicate a person's wealth status. "The more tattooed, the richer," he said. After all, Baruamas Jabang Balumus, 67 years old, a Dayak traditional figure from the Taman tribe, said, in the tattoo of the Dayak community there were other aspects besides the social strata symbol. "Tattoo is a form of respect for the ancestors," said the character whose real name is Masuka Djanting. An example is the tattoo tradition in the Dayak Iban and Dayak Kayan cultures. In both tribes, tattooing is believed to be a symbol and means of expressing the ruler of nature. Tattoos are also believed to be able to ward off evil spirits, and ward off illness or death spirits. Tattoos as a form of expression to God are related to Dayak cosmology. For the Dayak community, nature is divided into three: top, middle and bottom. Symbols representing the upper cosmos are visible on the hornbill, moon and sun tattoo motifs. Middle world, place of human life, symbolized by the tree of life. While the serpent is a motif that shows the underworld.

Charles Hose, a British officer at the Sarawak Civil Service Office in 1884, diligently recorded the legends believed by the Dayaks. In the book Natural Man, A Record from Borneo published by Oxford University Press, 1990, Charles Hose recounts the promise of the Borneo crows and the Argus Quail to adorn their feathers. After the First Menstruation In the legend, the crow successfully smoothly does its job. Honey, kuau are stupid birds. Unable to do it, finally the argus kuau asked the crow to sit on a bowl of ink, then rubbed it all over the body of the kuau, the scavenger. Since then, it is said, crows and quails have the color of feathers and 'makeup' as they are now. Broadly, tattoos are found throughout the Dayak community. However, Hose considered, the best tattoo techniques and designs belonged to the Kayan tribe. For this tribe, tattooing is only done if it meets certain conditions. For men, the tattooing process is done after he can head the enemy head. The tradition of tattoos for men is slowly sinking in line with the prohibition of headhunting.

After the ban, tattoos only appear for aesthetic purposes. The tradition of tattooing is not lost on the Eve. Now, they consider tattoos as a symbol of beauty and self-esteem. Although the Dayak people do not know caste, tedak kaya, aka women without tattoos, is considered to be lower in rank than those with tattoos. There are three types of tattoos that are commonly carried by Dayak Kayan women. These include gauze tread, which covers the entire leg and is used as an adult. Others are usuu strokes all over the hands, and hapii stems all over the thighs. Among the Dayak Kenyah tribe, tattooing begins when a woman is 16 years old, or after the first menstruation. The traditional ceremony is held in a special house. During the tattooing, all men in the house must not leave the house. In addition, all family members are also required to undergo various restrictions. It is said that if the taboo is violated, the safety of the person being tattooed will be threatened. In the past, so that the child who was tattooed did not move, a large mortar was placed on his body. If the child cries, the crying must be performed in a special tone. In the Dayak Iban community, tattoos depict social status. Customary leaders, village chiefs, and warlords tattoo themselves with symbols of the world above. The symbols of the underworld only adorn the bodies of ordinary people. This motif is passed down from generation to generation to show one's kinship line.

In ancient times the material for making tattoos came from shell charcoal mixed with sugar cane water. The tools used are still very traditional. Such as wooden stalks, needles and beaters from the trunk. Inland people still use manual techniques and from traditional materials. Eskimos, for example, use needles made from animal bones. In Shaolin temples use heated copper barrels to print images of dragon tattoos on flat skin. The Shaolin students, who were deemed eligible for the symbol, put their arms together on a kind of dragon print on both sides of the hot copper barrel. Much different from now. Currently, especially among urban communities, tattooing is done by an electric machine. This machine was invented in 1891 in England. Then the coloring agent uses synthetic ink.