Tapping Ink, Tattooing Identities

Tapping Ink, Tattooing Identities is a unique account of contemporary and past tattooing practices among the Kalinga people in Northern Luzon. Based on long-term and in-depth fieldwork, the author documents traditional tattooing practices and designs and explores the origins and meanings of designs. However, this book also takes into account the contemporary relevance of tattooing as an aspect of asserting identity as well as a practice that draws tourists into the region. As such the author demonstrates comprehensively that the tattooing practices of the Kalinga have both a long history as well as a hopefully vibrant future. Salvador-Amore's fieldwork and analysis builds sensitively on the strong social relations she managed to build up in the course of her research most notably with the extraordinary tattooing expert Whang-ud whose own life story is woven through the book. - Elizabeth Edward and Marcus Banks, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford Written in profound narrative and ethnographic style, Tapping Ink, Tattooing Identities revolves around Wang-ud - her life, her approach to tattooing, and her activity as a tattoo practitioner. The ethnography, however, extrapolates an analysis of Kalinga tattooing from this one central character. Whang-ud , the ninety-year-old tattoo practitioner, is the living embodiment of the transition between traditional and modern tattooing.