FinalNerveMagazine

May 2023│Volume 6│Issue 10
WOMEN¤TATTOOS¤CULTURE
INK FOR
INDEPENDENCE
Filipino tribal tattooist
Whang-od Oggay has
built an economy on the
back of skin art. 24

7 History
The Feminist
History of Women
19
and Tattoos
Style
High Dive
Apparel//Our Story
31 Gear
Meet the Artists
Combining
Tattoos and Tech
45 Art
What are The
Different Types of
Tattoo Art-styles
TATTOOED
MODELS ARE
PEOPLE TOO
A DAY WITH TATTOO MODEL
MONAMI FROST
58 Culture
A Tattoo Won’t hurt
Your Job Prospects
79 Infographic
Differences Between
Rotary and Coil
104
Machines
Controversy
How to Design a
Tattoo That Works
With Your Scars
136 Groundbreakers
Watching Tattoos
Go From Rebellious
to Mainstream
INK FOR
INDEPENDENCE
A 101 YEAR-OLD TATTOO ARTIST
IS TEACHING GIRLS
HER ANCIENT TRADE
SELF-LOVE
THE NEW AGE OF TATTOOS
IS ALL ABOUT IT,
AND YOU SHOULD BE TOO
BLOOD, INK,
AND TEARS
WOMEN AND MINORITIES
MAKING THEIR MARK IN
A MALE DOMINATED WORLS
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EDITOR
Madeline Zeman
LITERARY EDITOR
Lexie Koch
Lauren Pilaar
ART DIRECTORS
Holly Tienken
COVER DESIGN
The Field Museum
CONTENT MANAGER
Nicholas Houtz
TECH MANAGER
Luke Gerard
CONTRIBUTORS
Caroline Fletcher
Gabriella Picariello
PHOTOGRAPHER
Mark Fullman
DISTRIBUTOR
Carissa Loser
editor`s
Dear Reader,
With modern technology surfacing and renewed beliefs on social issues, the world of
tattooing remains a traditionally male dominated industry, and one that ridicules women and
their perceived “femininity.” Each issue of Nerve strives to put a spotlight on women within
the tattooed world. Whether you are an alternative model, a tattoo artist, or simply a tattoo
enthusiast, you will find something to empower you and spread enlightenment in this newly
changing time. Let’s break boundaries and show the world how beautiful the artwork on your
skin is. Not only is it an aesthetic choice for some, it can be the essence of what makes you you.
Being tattooed doesn’t have to mean you can’t have the job you have always dreamed of,
or that you aren’t feminine enough. Each and every person is unique in their own way.
Uniqueness is where beauty comes from. In the past, tattoos have been associated with
crime, gangs, and prison, so there is reason for doubt among older generations. But there has
never been a better time for change, and that can start with liberating yourself from societal,
confines, and inspiring others to do the same. This issue will delve into specific stories
and experiences from women all around the world and how they can rise above
discrimination to find empowerment.
Sincerely,
Madeline Zeman
Editor in Chief
777 Tallwood St.
New York, NY 10034
www.nervemagazine.com
follow @NerveMag
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Feature
Option 1
BY: LYNZY BILLING
Filipino tribal tattooist Whang-od Oggay has
built an economy on the back of skin art.
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After a grueling hike through the jungle, traversing
valleys and vibrant rice terraces to the top
of the mountain where the teetering village
awaits, visitors, tourists, and fans arrive sweaty
and gleeful at Buscalan village, Kalinga, in the
Philippines’ far north. Buscalan, which has
narrow dirt walkways, limited electricity, and no
cell phone service, is the most popular destination
in Kalinga Province. Tourism to the village has
increased significantly from an estimated 30,000
in 2010 to 170,000 in 2016.
Whang-od Oggay emerges from her wooden hut in the distance,
and there is a literal rush towards her. Everyone wants a glimpse
of this quirky, fastidious centenarian. She is known worldwide as
a living legend and the last tribal tattoo artist to hold the title of
Mambabatok—the name given to traditional tattooists by the Kalinga
ethnic group for thousands of years. “When you die, a tattoo is the
only thing that will remain on your body, so it is a treasure, a treasure
that lasts,” says Oggay.
For over eight decades, Oggay has been single-handedly keeping
the traditions of the Butbut tribe alive through a unique method
of hand-tap tattooing. It is an archaic procedure in which Oggay
uses citrus thorns to prick the skin—either from calamansi, a cross
between citrus and a kumquat, or pomelo tree branch. The thorns
are threaded into a bamb oo reed. Oggay marks the tattoo design on
the skin with a delicate piece of straw. Charcoal and water are mixed
together to make the tribal tattoo ink, which is wiped onto the thorn
and hand tapped into the skin using a 12-inch bamboo hammer.
I travelled to the remote Philippine Cordillera Mountains to learn
about Kalinga tattooing culture from Whang-od Oggay herself.
Kalinga means “outlaw,” which is highly appropriate.During 400
years of occupation by Spain and the U.S., the Kalinga were one of
the few tribes to not come under foreign rule, due to their fighting
skills and contempt for outsiders. Thousands of years ago the
tribe was involved in bloodthirsty battles for land and honor with
neighboring villages. At night, their victorious battles were celebrated
with rice liqueur, drunk out of the skulls of enemies, and dancing to
the beat of gongs made out of human jaw bones.
Triumphant Butbut head-hunters and male warriors of the
indigenous tribe would go to the mambabatok in Buscalan, Kalinga
to get the batok (a hand-tapped tattoo), a symbol of their bravery
and courage for protecting their village against enemies, to the extent
of killing them. And the number of tattoos on a warrior was directly
related to the number of heads they took. This tradition has
long since ceased.
Anyone wanting to learn and practice the art
of tattooing has to know what it feels like,
says the Kalinga. They have to experience
the pain in their bodies. For men, a Kalinga
tattoo was traditionally a sign of strength,
wealth and power. But there is also a
romanticism around Filipino tribal tattoos.
Tattoos here represent beauty. A tattoo turns
a girl into a woman, and the more tattoos
you have, the more beautiful you are, says
the Kalinga. “We were tattooed because
we wanted to have sex appeal and to be
attractive to men,” says Oggay. “Many of the
elders here have the same tattoos as their
husbands. It’s a Kalinga tradition for the
wives of warriors to match their tattoos
with their husbands.”
WHEN YOU DIE,
A TATTOO IS
THE ONLY THING
THAT WILL REMAIN
ON YOUR BODY,
SO IT IS A TREASURE, A
TREASURE THAT LASTS.
-Oggay
There are 20 female elders in Buscalan with
full-body tattoos, many of whom received
their first tattoo at just 13. And these women
and their daughters and granddaughters
place a major role in the village.“They are
the breadwinners,” says Oggay. “They work
in the fields and rice terraces. Women are
hardworking and strong, we can carry
heavy loads and do labor work.
If a man can, why not
a woman.
We want to support our families and village,
it is the Kalinga way.” And it is also the
women who carry on the indigenous inking
of the batok.
Oggay was the first female tattoo artist
in Kalinga. But she may not be the last
Mambabatok. Over time there has been
a shift, with young women taking up the
ancient tradition. Through tattooing, they
are economically supporting the whole
village. “The women have more interest and
passion in carrying on this millenniumold
technique,” says Oggay, “And they are
patient. Men cannot be as still and precise
for long periods of time as a woman can.”
Oggay may have spent her whole life
tattooing head-hunters, but these days her
time-honored folk art is practiced on the
countless tourists that visit Buscalan
village each year.
At 101 years of age she moves freely,
indifferent to the public adoration, feeding
her ducks and pounding rice. Visitors sit next
to her posing for pictures with their thumbs
up and sidle up to her to kiss her cheek. Her
fame is undeniable. But no one seems to
really get her attention, which she saves for
her tattooing. “When I was young my friends
and I were always tattooing each other but
my tattoos were always the better ones,” says
Oggay. “Whagay, the Mambabatok from the
neighboring village of Ngibat, tattooed me
when I was 15 years old, he took three days
to tattoo my full body,” says Oggay. “He then
went on to teach me the art of
Kalinga tattooing.”
Oggay never married and has no children.
She does everything on her own in absolute
independence. “I have boyfriends but when
I was 25 years old the man I loved died
during the Japanese occupation, so instead
of marrying another I choose to dedicate
my life to tattooing,” she says. ”Through it
I support myself and my village. In fact, the
proudest moment in my life was when
I started tattooing.”
Thousands of hopeful tourists from all
corners of the earth make the journey
to Buscalan each year to get a “Whangod
tattoo,” having read about her on the
internet. And one must wonder how the
stardom around Oggay, in the Philippines
and globally, affects her and her craft. In
October 2017 Oggay traveled to Manila to
appear at the Manila FAME trade show, an
international showcase for the country’s
artisans. Her appearance received global
criticism globally after a photograph surfaced
on social media showing Oggay sleeping at
the tattoo show after tattooing an estimated
300 trade show attendees in two days. There
was debate over whether Oggay should have
traveled from her remote tribal environment
at her age, and whether she was being
exploited. “It takes years to perfect Kalinga
tattooing,” says Oggay. “It was an honor to be
invited and I wanted to see what Manila was
like,” she says. “The organizers said I should
stop and rest, but I didn’t want to waste the
continued on page 85
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culture
A Tattoo Won’t Hurt
Your Job Prospects
by: Alison Beard
Michael T. French of the University of Miami and
colleagues surveyed more than 2,000 people
in the United States and found that those with
tattoos were no less likely to be employed than
their uninked counterparts, and that average
earnings were the same for both groups.
In fact, tattooed men were slightly more likely
to have jobs than other men.
PROFESSOR FRENCH, DEFEND YOUR RESEARCH.
French: We went in expecting to find a negative relationship
between tattoos and success in the labor market. My
coauthors, and I thought we might see a wage penalty or
employment difficulties. But in this analysis we found no
significant correlation between body art and employment.
Regardless of size, number, visibility, or offensiveness, tattoos
don’t seem to stop people from finding jobs or bringing in as
much pay as everyone else. We even saw two small positive
correlations: Men who had tattoos were 7% more likely to be
employed than men who didn’t have them, and both men and
women with tattoos worked more hours per week.
WHAT GOT YOU INTERESTED?
There’s been a lot of research on the career effects of other
personal characteristics—race, age, beauty, health, height,
weight, and disabilities—and of behaviors such as drinking,
smoking, and drug use. But nothing much had been done
on tattoos. We thought we might get different results by
asking about tattoos you could see or that were especially
large or considered offensive. Our initial hypothesis was also
informed by studies suggesting that tattoos are taboo in the
workplace. One showed that tattooed people were perceived
to be less honest, motivated, and intelligent; in another, 80%
of HR managers and recruiters expressed negative feelings
about visible ink on prospective employees. Until recently,
tattoos may have been associated with rebellion, criminal
activity, or gang membership—nothing you’re looking for in
an employee.
BUT TIMES HAVE CHANGED?
Yes, some of those studies are more than a decade old. Since
then, body art has gained much more acceptance as a form
of personal expression, just like your clothing, jewelry, or
hairstyle. Among our survey respondents, 23% of men and
37% of women had tattoos. Some estimates suggest that there
is a tattooed person in 40% of U.S. households, up from
21% in 1999. I’d also note that, as economists have shown
in other contexts, stated preferences don’t always match
revealed preferences. You might say you’d hire someone
without tattoos over someone with them for a particular job.
But when it comes right down to it, you’ll choose the most
qualified person, body art or not. Even the U.S. Marines now
allow recruits to have visible tattoos anywhere but the face,
because when tattoos were banned, the organization found
it was losing out on good candidates.
BLUE-COLLAR VS. WHITE-COLLAR?
That’s something I wish we’d asked about. A 2010 study
did show that consumers perceived visible tattoos to be
inappropriate in white-collar professions but not in bluecollar
ones. And it’s possible that the people we surveyed
were mostly in lower-paying jobs, since they’d volunteered
to answer our questions for a small fee on Mechanical
Turk. Their average annual salary was $36,485 for men and
$25,930 for women. In some types of jobs body art might be
seen as less of a negative or even a positive. But I suspect that
nowadays most people think it’s OK for even doctors,
lawyers, and accountants to have tattoos.
WOMEN, TOO?
Yep. Women accounted for two-thirds of our sample,
but we found no employment or wage penalty for
those with body art.
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