These are pictures of me hand tattooing my first Nlaka’pamux hand tattoo on someone other than myself, this is so awesome. The tattoo design was inspired by the pictographs of the Stein Valley which i will be visiting next week and photographing as many pictographs as possible. The photos were taken by Wes Wilson who does weddings [...]

Filed under: Decolonization, Nlaka'pamux (Thompson Indian) Tattooing, Tattoo Revival, Tattooing by Hand

Another Piece done by John Weber as part of Captain Cooks explorations, this one is of a Aleut woman with Facial Tattoos.

Filed under: Aleut Tattoos, Early North American Indigenous Tattoos, Facial Tattooing, Tattooing by Hand

As I begin this new leg of my journey I figured the best place to start is by reflection, a brief look at my journey into my studies at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan in Indigenous studies. Why this project? Why this subject? What is my connection to it, and why is it important? My [...]

Filed under: Decolonization, Identity, James Teit, Nlaka'pamux (Thompson Indian) Tattooing, Skin Stitch Tattooing, Tattoo Revival, Tattooing by Hand

I’m so excited to have been awarded an Undergraduate Research Award which means I will be spending my summer researching Nlaka’pamux tattooing and being paid to do this research. I will be spending many hours searching and looking through photos at Museums and Archives as well as reading journals written by settlers, missionaries, fur traders etc to look for any evidence [...]

Filed under: Decolonization, Facial Tattooing, Identity, James Teit, Nlaka'pamux (Thompson Indian) Tattooing, Skin Stitch Tattooing, Tattoo Revival, Tattooing by Hand, Uncategorized

While searching the Canada Archives website I found these amazing paintings by John Verelst, the first painting is entitled. Sagayenkwaraton (baptized Brant). Named Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow, King of the Maquas (Mohawk)  It depicts a Mohawk King with an amazing example of the rich history of Tattooing in North America among its Indigenous peoples. [...]

Filed under: Cultural Capital, Facial Tattooing, Identity, Lars Krutak, Tattoo Revival, Tattooing by Hand

After digging a little deeper at the Canadian Library and Archive I found some more Photos, you can access these pictures at   http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca.

Filed under: Facial Tattooing, Inuit Tattooing, Skin Stitch Tattooing, Tattooing by Hand

As I was researching online the other day I found these amazing photos taken in 1937 by the Photographer Donald B. Marsh. They Were taken at Eskimo Point, N.W.T., [Arviat (formerly Eskimo Point), Nunavut] and I found them at the Canadian Library and Archive. I found some other also at the Canadian Library and Archive, these are [...]

Filed under: Facial Tattooing, Inuit Tattooing, Skin Stitch Tattooing, Tattooing by Hand

After much research and alot of planning, I finally decided to begin practicing my traditional hand tattooing techniques. Here are the pictures of my first pieces, the skin stitch is four parallel lines which according to James Teit meant that the wearer was courageous, and then I tattooed three diamond shapes that represent lakes Witt [...]

Filed under: Decolonization, Identity, James Teit, Nlaka'pamux (Thompson Indian) Tattooing, Skin & Ink Magazine, Skin Stitch Tattooing, Tattoo Revival, Tattooing by Hand

This is another article about the tradition of  skin stitch tattooing among the Indigenous peoples of St Lawrence Island. http://www.larskrutak.com/articles/Last_Tattoos_SLI/index.html At the end of this article he talks about the dying tradition, check out my next post and see it being revived.

Filed under: Identity, Lars Krutak, Skin Stitch Tattooing, St Lawrence Island, Tattooing by Hand, Uncategorized, Yupik

This is the article which brought me to the connection with the Inuit and Northern peoples, which brought me to find Alethea Arnaquq-Baril and her documentary. This article shows some Nlaka’ pamux facial tattoos, which are accounted in “Tattooing and Face and Body Painting of the Thompson Indians British Columbia” by James Teit. http://www.larskrutak.com/articles/Thread_Needle/index.html

Filed under: Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Facial Tattooing, Inuit Tattooing, James Teit, Nlaka'pamux (Thompson Indian) Tattooing, Skin Stitch Tattooing, St Lawrence Island, Tattooing by Hand, Yupik