Should 'Westerners' get Maori artwork tattooed on their bodies?

!An-Epitaph-To-Truth Dec 29, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Not sure if this belongs in the Philosophy and Religion forum (since we are discussing a derivative of faith), but yeah that's my question. Should Westerners, or anyone for that matter, outside of the Maori culture get Maori tattoos/Maori style tattoos?

You can no longer comment on this thread as it was closed due to no activity for a month.

Devious Comments

~HassanAlKhajul Dec 30, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Just goes to show that there's a huge demographic out there of people who get tattoos because they look cool, not because they hold any personal significance to the people getting them.

Not everyone with a tattoo is a total tool... but these sorts of people are.

!An-Epitaph-To-Truth Dec 30, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Yep, they create a stereotype unfortunately.

~WorldWar-Tori Dec 30, 2012 Photographer

I don't believe in getting religious/cultural tattoos unless it is part of your religion/culture... I'm catholic, I'm not gonna go get a hamesh hand tattooed to me no matter how pretty some designs are.

But, people can do as they please; a lot of people get tattoos for no reason other than they are visually appealing and they want to.

So no, I don't think they should, but it's not like we can stop them.

!An-Epitaph-To-Truth Dec 30, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Very true, I was discussing with other deviants that, it isn't exactly fair to tell people what they can/can't get inked.

~WorldWar-Tori Dec 30, 2012 Photographer

The way I see it, it may not necessarily be "right", but I wouldn't call it wrong either. It's a gray area topic. I don't think they do it to insult/harm/disrespect/etc. the other person/culture/religion/whatever. They just like it, like Chinese symbols, every fourth person with a tattoo has them... I know quite a few and none of them are Chinese, it's just a popular tattoo type.

!An-Epitaph-To-Truth Dec 30, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Yeees. Very true, I think the vast majority of people just get the pretty design, but have no intent to insult (a tongue twister there)

~WorldWar-Tori Dec 30, 2012 Photographer

exactly.
and I bet

~JigokuNeko Dec 30, 2012 Digital Artist

nope. These tattoos hold a cultural/religious significance to these people. When a westerner gets a tattoo they relegate it to "decoration" and "it just looks pretty to me" status while probably being ignorant of the history and meaning etc. This is cultural appropriation and insulting. The only way to be legit is to have the people whose culture you are interested in, grant you permission. Same goes for dressing up in halloween as indians, geishas etc or getting tattoos in kanji without speaking japanese. Personally, I'd be ashamed to have a tattoo like that and be seen by a japanese person, and I even speak the language!

!An-Epitaph-To-Truth Dec 30, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

I don't think it's as much of an issue with kanji, because it's a writing system rather than a design of cultural significance.

~JigokuNeko Dec 30, 2012 Digital Artist

eh, well, true, not as offensive. But it just looks weird, especially if the kanji is some sort of "meaningful sentence" that people just google-translated from english to japanese/chinese without knowing if it actually makes sense in the original language. Sometimes I see some hipster dudes/dudettes like that in the subway and try to make sense of their kanji tattoos.

Details

Statistics

Should 'Westerners' get Maori artwork tattooed on their bodies?

Devious Comments

The Journal Portal

Polls

What is your preferred drawing software?

deviantART [dee·vee·un'nt·ART]

Keep in Touch!

Deviousness

Add Media

Style