Taiwanese Atayal Facial Tattoo

Registered myself and Lionel for a talk and presentation about the Taiwanese Atayal Tribe and their form of facial tattoo yesterday at the Asian Civilisation Museum(ACM). Had chanced upon this exhibition weeks ago and found that ACM organises different activities at the last Friday every month. For the month of July, the topic is the Atayal facial tattoo tradition which is now a dying artform. The speaker Tien Kuei-Shih is a truck driver who pursues his passion for photography in his free time. He combines this with his passion for his indigenous heritage and has committed himself with the task of photographing and documenting the remaining living Atayal tribal persons with facial tattoos. Within the next ten years all living record of this culture may be gone, so he has been giving speeches around the world these years to raise awareness of this culture.

His presentation documents the Atayal Facial Tattoo Culture that was once an essential part of the Atayal tribal culture. Once considered fierce headhunters, the Atayal tribal people used facial tattoos as a way to distinguish themselves from other tribes. As a child every Atayal tribal person was given a stripe tattoo on the forehead to distinguish that they were a part of the tribe. This practice prevented accidental killings of their own people. The facial tattoos were also a way of recognizing maturity among tribal members. The women were required to prove their cooking and weaving skills before receiving their v-shaped tattoo on their face and become eligible for marriage. The men were required to return with the head of an enemy to prove their manhood and earn their stripe tattoo on their chin.

Wrinkles have stealthily covered the faces of those remaining with the facial tattoos. The youngest is in their 80's and the oldest is over 106. All of the survivors have gone through the Japanese Resistance and the Japanese Occupation. One can see them as the best providers of oral narrative on Taiwanese history. As much historical and cultural importance as they represent, they cannot defend themselves against time. It is estimated that it will take no more than 10 years for all of the facially tattoed Atayal to pass away.

Having watched some videos and learning their stories, different feelings overwhelmed me. The speaker had indeed put in his heart and soul for this project in the cause of documenting this tradition. He had seen many of them passed away last few years and while he was here in Singapore, he received news that another had passed away 2 days ago. Due to time constraint, we could not finish watching the live footage he had taken in Taiwan with these survivors. I actually plucked up my courage after the presentation to ask him if i could get the videos from him as i had my thumbdrive with me but was rejected. His reply was...Come to Taiwan and I show you haha.

The evening ended with a short performance by the Atayal Heritage Ensemble. A great evening indeed!