Samoan culture has a deep culture of traditional tattoos. Women receive a tattoo called the malu, and men one called a pe’a. Both tattoos are done by tufugas, tattooing specialists. Tufuga use sharpened bone to etch designs into the skin. A pe’a is quite the commitment – it covers a man’s body from the middle of his torso down to his knees. Imagine that as your first tattoo. Because a pe’a is so large, it may take weeks to finish. In Samoa, an untattooed man may be called telefua, or naked. For women, a malu is done from below the knee to the upper thigh. The fruit bat, an animal said to carry messages and blessings in Polynesian myth, often appears in traditional Samoan tattooing. Both malu and pe’a tell the story of the individual and their role in society.

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