The Last Tattooist of Kalinga’s Headhunters
One of the legendary names in the tattoo industry is a century-old woman. Yes, she’s still alive, and it can take over 8 hours on a bus plus a hike to get a tattoo from her.
Her culture had a belief: upon death, all our jewelry and accessories will be removed, but tattoos will remain. Thus, her father Oggay encouraged her at 13 years old to learn how to tattoo, which became the best part of her childhood.
Whang-Od belonged to the Butbut Tribe, from the remote village of Buscalan, located on the mountains of Kalinga, Philippines. In her tribe, warriors earned certain tattoos when they killed or wounded enemies, whether from enemy tribes or from foreign invaders. The art of tattooing was important for women, too: among others, tattoos were a measure of beauty and believed to increase fertility and prevent diseases.
As a young girl, Whang-Od practiced tattooing on herself and on her friends, and got some of her tattoos from Oggay. She would later master the craft, become covered in ink, and join other “mambabatoks” (traditional Kalinga tattoists) in tattooing her tribe’s members and vicious headhunters.
Their way of tattooing is unique. According to Catajan:
