You never forget the sound or strike of the 'au as it marks your skin. Its distinct tapping sound represents the unbroken ancient tradition of tatau, encompassing a rich legacy passed down from ...

Small arrows, birds and stars adorn the tops of the soldier’s hands and fingers. Etched into her skin from the wrists up to her nail beds, the markings are no ordinary tattoos, but symbols of ...

“Tatau: Marks of Polynesia,” at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles July 30-Jan. 8, looks at the Samoan practice of tattoo and how the patterns and motifs of these works of art help ...

In the 1800s, a chief in the South Pacific archipelago of Samoa sought medical aid from a Christian missionary stationed there. The missionary, a Scotsman by the name of George Archibald Lundie, urged ...