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Tales from Te Papa - Tatau: Samoan Tattooing
Television (Full Length Episode) – 2010
If you go for the full customary Samoan tattoo forms, you're really making a commitment to the art form and the culture.– Te Papa senior curator Sean Mallon talks about the significance of tatau
Growing up I heard different stories about how tatau (tattoo) came to Sāmoa. My favourite was of the twin sisters Taema and Tilafaiga who swam from Fiji to gift the tātatau/tatau to women. Legend has it some did not want to share the tatau and bewitched the sisters so that by the time they arrived in Sāmoa they gifted men the practice of tatau instead.– Writer Barbara Makuati-Afitu on the mythology around tatau, Auckland War Memorial Museum website, 25 May 2016
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