Traditional tattoo donated by Kwanlin Dün citizen is part of cultural revival

One drop of ink on the end of a needle at a time, stories are told, an identity is forged, and perhaps wounds are healed even as skin is broken. These are some of the goals as Anne Spice, a citizen of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN) now living in Toronto, will be in Whitehorse next month to hand tattoo approximately 24 KDFN citizens.

Spice says the tattoos she does without the aid of the machines found in most tattoo parlors are in the Tlingit style, but there is a similar form practiced across much of the northwest coast of l ‘North America.

The tattoos, which Spice has herself and inks on others, include lines on the chin and temples, bands on the wrists and forearms, and various markings on the fingers, among other designs.

She explained that traditional tattooing of this style is recovering. This practice was once banned by colonial authorities and Spice said this practice was being reconstructed based on available information untainted by this colonial bias.

“Few people have a living memory of tattooing and have seen tattoos before colonization, but it would likely have been used as a way to mark life transitions, things like coming of age, having children, becoming a warrior, the status of being a leader,” Spice said.

She said Tlingit chiefs often had their clan crests tattooed on their chests, and women had clan marks on their hands and chins as a coming-of-age ritual.

“I think there was a lot of shame around a lot of our cultural practices, and particularly forms of body modification that people considered to be backwards or part of old ways,” Spice said of the removal of traditional tattooing.

She added that the Church suppressed practices considered pagan and that the ban on tattooing was accompanied by the suppression of other cultural practices such as the potlatch.

“I think there is still some fear around this type of marking. They identify us as indigenous people and identify us in relation to others, which is part of their function in the first place. But if this identification and connection was a source of violence, I can see why it would cause some discomfort, and I think that part of my work, and other tattoo artists who are trying to bring this practice back, a Part of our work is to help revive it as a healing practice. Help people find pride in that and not fear,” Spice said.

She says the pain associated with tattooing is part of healing because it can help bring out other pain that people can try to work with.

Spice said that before steel was commercially available in the region, tattoo tools would have been made from bone. In the past, inks were made from plant materials such as ash and devil’s club.

“It was either pushed in, rubbed into cuts made like with a blade, or sewn up. So there’s also skin stitches, which I don’t do, but other people in the area do, which is tendons and sinews. a bone needle, then the tendon is dipped in ink and pulled through the skin,” Spice explained.

Spice makes tattoos for people on their hands with a needle attached to a handle. She described the process of learning the method as “a lot of trial and error,” which she began six years ago while occupying Indigenous land and has since refined.

Hand tattooing is a slower process than tattooing using a machine. Spice compared it to the repetitive work of beading and weaving. For this reason, designs must be simpler.

“I talk to people about it first, and then we talk about sort of symbols and other things that resonate with them. Some people immediately see the tattoo on themselves. They can clearly describe to me what they are looking for. Some people have a dream or something where a symbol appears or see themselves with a tattoo,” she said.

Spice, who works as an anthropology professor in Toronto, places the revival of Indigenous tattooing in and around the Yukon among a similar rediscovery by Indigenous peoples around the world. She said Māori and Pacific Islanders were at the forefront of this.

“There’s more and more discussion between different countries that have these practices about what it means to revive it, and so, yes, some places are a little further along that path than others, and I think we’re getting it here, but there are other people who have already done a lot of this work over the past few decades.

Among those who received a Spice tattoo was Olivia Gatensby.

Gatensby described hearing about the opportunity and being struck by the description Spice wrote and the descriptions of the tattoo as a chance to connect with traditions.

Spice and Gatensby opted for bands and circles for both of Gatensby’s hands.

Before the tattoo, Gatensby described feeling nervous, with only one tattoo already done by machine and nothing on her hands. Once the session began, she described it as less painful than the “rapid-fire machine” she had previously gotten a tattoo with.

Contact Jim Elliot at [email protected]