{"id":14411,"date":"2015-10-26T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/inupiaq-woman-joins-traditional-tattooing-movement\/"},"modified":"2015-10-26T08:00:59","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T15:00:59","slug":"inupiaq-woman-joins-traditional-tattooing-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/inupiaq-woman-joins-traditional-tattooing-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Inupiaq woman joins traditional tattooing movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE \u2014<\/strong> Marjorie Tahbone pushed a needle into and back out of a woman\u2019s forearm, allowing the ink-covered end of the cotton thread to soak in the skin for a moment before she pulled it out and began another stitch.<\/p>\n

Onlookers crowded around Tahbone at the First Alaskans Institute Elders and Youth Conference in Anchorage this week as she continued to weave the thread through 60-year-old Becky Bendixen\u2019s skin. It left behind a permanent thin black line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hurt a tiny bit,\u201d said Bendixen, a Unangax woman from King Cove who counted it as her 19th tattoo. Bendixen comes from a tribe that, like many, traditionally marks significant life events with tattoos or piercings. \u201cIt\u2019s still not like the tattoo gun, but there\u2019s definitely some sensation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tahbone, a 26-year-old Inupiaq woman from Nome, sat next to Bendixen and wielded the needle with hands dressed in latex gloves. She smiled often while explaining each step \u2014 from marinating the needle in alcohol to the shallow depths at which she moved through the skin.<\/p>\n

Not everyone today understands the art of traditional Inuit tattoos, Tahbone said. The practice, both aesthetic and symbolic in nature, fell into disuse for decades after contact with non-Natives. However, a growing movement has surfaced in the 21st century to revitalize traditional tattooing and Tahbone has joined it as a new artist who hones a modern edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider my generation as a reawakening generation,\u201d Tahbone said. \u201cWe\u2019re ready and we\u2019re tired of not doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tahbone grew up in western Alaska in an environment centered on tradition and subsistence, she said. She learned about her ancestors \u2014 about the influenza that killed many of them, the boarding schools they had to attend and the punishment her mother received for speaking the Inupiaq language.<\/p>\n

\u201cA burning fire was inside of me,\u201d Tahbone said, who described herself as a culture bearer and an elder in training. \u201cIt was just a desire to learn more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after Tahbone graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2012, she had three black vertical lines inked onto her chin. The traditional Inuit tattoo represents womanhood and a coming of age. For Tahbone it meant she had the strength to provide for a family and help her community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a new thing,\u201d she said of the chin tattoo. \u201cI feel like a lot of the elders don\u2019t really know or understand it because it\u2019s been asleep for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tahbone\u2019s grandmother eventually supported the chin tattoo, but it took her some time to come around to the idea. When she grew up, such a tattoo, deeply rooted in culture, would have only led to public shame and mockery. While times have changed, Tahbone said she still gets prying questions about her facial tattoo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to make sure I was strong and the only reason I was strong was because I had the backing of my family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Then came the Facebook message this summer from a Filipino tattoo artist in Los Angeles. He had seen pictures of Tahbone\u2019s tattoo.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018You need to become a tattoo artist so we can revitalize something that\u2019s been asleep for so long,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I jumped on that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tahbone flew to California in August and learned how to hand-stitch tattoos and use a needle to punch ink into the skin. She also decided to get her birthing tattoos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our culture, we believe that when a baby exits the womb and into life, they\u2019re aware. They know what\u2019s going on; they can see,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we want to ensure that they know that they\u2019re entering a beautiful world. A world full of love. A world full of beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tahbone now wears her family\u2019s history on her thighs. She designed the tattoo and the Los Angeles artist and his wife inked it onto her legs over two days.<\/p>\n

It begins in simple straight lines that represent the beginning of time. The Y\u2019s are for her ancestors. \u201cThey are always strong,\u201d she said. Moving toward her knee, thick blue lines interject the eclectic design. Those are the dark times when colonization and assimilation tore at her people, she said.<\/p>\n

The design then transforms into a pattern dotted with diamonds. It\u2019s the same pattern that once marked the trim of her great-grandmother\u2019s parkas. Her family comes from a long line of reindeer herders, Tahbone explained.<\/p>\n

Her mother came up with the teal fins for killer whales. The broken line represents the tattoo that, as a teenager, her mother started to sew on herself. She had wanted one like her grandmother, but she got negative feedback, so she stopped stitching, Tahbone said.<\/p>\n

The purple and maroon patterns closest to Tahbone\u2019s knee are her interpretation of the current time. The color modernizes the traditional. \u201cI love to be modern,\u201d she said. Once, she had a broken purple line, like the blue one near her mother\u2019s design, but she hand-stitched that closed to represent healing (and also so she knew what it felt to have a hand-sewn tattoo).<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are reminders of what happened,\u201d Tahbone said. \u201cI\u2019m constantly reminded of my journeys because I\u2019m a culture bearer. I\u2019m a product of everything Inupiaq.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways, Tahbone\u2019s tattoos represent cultural traditions under a modern lens. They incorporate colored ink. An artist did her chin and thigh tattoos with a high-powered gun. She balks at any notion that that makes them any less traditional. Her ancestors constantly adapted and so has she.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s traditional in every other aspect,\u201d she said. \u201cIf my ancestors had tattoo guns, you would have bet your bottom dollar that they would have used them.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still relatively uncommon to come across a tattoo artist like Tahbone, trained in hand-poking and stitching tattoos. By Wednesday morning, she had completed six tattoos and plans to do a dozen more in coming weeks. She was receiving requests from all over Alaska and even outside the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever did I imagine that it would be something so big like this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tahbone doesn\u2019t take payment for the tattoos, but she does accept trades. She\u2019ll trade for kuspuks, fur or mittens. She pointed at one girl in the crowd Tuesday and said, \u201cI like that shirt. We could trade for that shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tahbone graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a degree in Inupiaq language and Alaska Native studies. She now teaches Inupiaq language in Nome and creates culturally relevant curricula. She plans to get her Ph.D.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot because I want to be known as Dr. Marjorie Tahbone \u2014 it\u2019s because I want to beat the system \u2014 against all odds,\u201d she said. \u201cThen I can pretty much be like, \u2018Yeah, I got it, you guys could get it too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Tahbone said she wants to be a person everyone can turn to if they have questions about Inupiaq culture. She doesn\u2019t want to corner herself into a profession \u2014 she will be a professional tattoo artist, a professional teacher and a professional culture bearer.<\/p>\n

To the many teenagers and children watching her tattoo, she underscored that she never thought she could become a tattoo artist, but it actually wasn\u2019t that hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re fully capable of doing all the things our ancestors did,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just takes practice \u2014 time and practice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANCHORAGE \u2014 Marjorie Tahbone pushed a needle into and back out of a woman\u2019s forearm, allowing the ink-covered end of the cotton thread to soak in the skin for a moment before she pulled it out and began another stitch. Onlookers crowded around Tahbone at the First Alaskans Institute Elders and Youth Conference in Anchorage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":14412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14411"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}