Hi everyone! I'm looking for some good leads on reputable sources on Polynesian tattooing. A lot of the sources I have found are from very dated and prejudiced sources from explorers. I'm wondering if there's better sources about Polynesian tattooing written by actual Polynesian people and not explorers. (I say Polynesian because I'm interested in multiple cultures like Maori, Tahitian, Samoan etc. so whatever you have about those cultures would be wonderful!)
Hello, Samoan here. I know bits and pieces about our tatu, and I live in New Zealand so I know a bit about tā moko or at least can ask someone who’s more knowledgeable about these things if I don’t have the answers... any specific questions or points of interest? Like are you interested in the equipment, patterns, stories behind them etc? Sorry about the lack of academic resources, I’ve hit this roadblock too when I’ve tried to research my own (Samoan- māori culture is a bit easier to find resources on) culture; our history was orated though so when we took so quickly to Christianity a lot of that spoken history faded. I can’t speak for the other islands on that one though.