Bloodline Tattooist

The indigenous people of Rapa Nui share ancestry with Hawaiians, Tahitians and the New Zealand Maori, a connection visibly present in their collective tattoo culture where fundamental motifs are present on the face, neck, torso, back, legs, arms, and top of the head.

To substantiate her research Fade Meraki met with a local historian and interviewed the only bloodline tattooist in Rapa Nui, Mokomae, a name that stems from the ancient tribe of the region.

Tattooing 25 years, Mokomae began his career aged 17, a time when there were no lingual or written records, no tattoo industry training, no rotaries, stencils, pre-made needles or inks.

Instead, he learned to recreate the traditional motifs of the Rapa Nui people by researching original petroglyphs and carvings.

Mokomae’s artwork focuses on the traditional Rapa Nui cultural style of tattooing.

He has made great efforts to revive tattoo culture, a key part of the island’s heritage that could have easily been lost and laid dormant due to the near extinction of the island’s inhabitants from the tragic combination of the Peruvian slave trade and Western diseases.

Much information about Rapa Nui ancestry, custom and indeed entire sections of history are missing, one of the many reasons that the Moai stone figures are so mysterious and captivating.