The Meaning Behind Maori Tattoo Designs

This article is intended to help people find completely unique Maori Tattoo designs and avoid the most widespread mistakes made today. Maori designs are the most popular among all tribal designs of tattoos worn by people! And while artists and tattoo designers take inspiration from different cultures to create their own designs and showcasing their artistic abilities, this isn’t the case with Maori tattoos.

An understanding of the tattoos of the Maoris demands an understanding of their culture because tattoos were an integral part of their tradition. And this requires knowledge of their terminology.
Ta Moko is the family name of Maoris that form part of the group called whakapapa. The major importance of this art of tattoos in the Maori culture was identification – they could trace back their lineage over a number of generations. This also meant that, on the battlefield, they could easily know who they were fighting, and their very lives depended on this crucial piece of information and hence, on the tattoos on their faces.
The Maori are still able to trace back their origins with the use of these tattoos. Some Maori chiefs can read tattoo designs like a book – all by the texture, design and precision of the art – and therefore can recognize and trace quite a few Maori family trees. There are Maori walking in New Zealand today who have tattoos that date back to 2000 years. And the chiefs can interpret these tattoos to know how far back the tribe goes. Another, not so apparent fact about these tattoos is that they each tell a different story – each tattoo has a tale of the tribe’s spirituality, belief and much more coded in it. This was the Ta form.

The Moko form is associated with the actual carving of the skin. This was traditionally done by bones of the albatross and other cutting tools. The colouring indicates family history while the patterns tell the story of the individual. Another rather unknown fact is that they had these designs on their back too and the people with the designs on the face were important members of the tribe.
So, copying the designs mindlessly basically means stealing the culture and the heritage of the Maoris while the people who do it think they are promoting Maori culture. The Maoris perceive incorrect Maori tattoos as weakening to their spirituality and the westerners as thieves for their lack of originality when it comes to Maori tattoo designs. So, the best thing to do is to contact a tribe leader or a tribal tattoo artist and enquire about the design you intend to get to see if it is already someone’s design.