In Alaska and other areas of the circumpolar north, women have been working in the last decade to revitalize a tattooing tradition that had been taken by colonization.
These tattoos, or "tavlugun" in Inupiaq, were traditionally inscribed on women’s skin by women’s hands to commemorate various achievements and points in a woman’s life, such as one’s first menstrual period, the mastery of a new skill and childbirth.
But as Western colonization swept Alaska in the 19th and 20th centuries, including the establishment of boarding schools where indigenous languages would not be spoken, many Alaska Natives were prohibited from practicing the rituals that had bound them to one another. Tattooing was one of those traditions.
In the last decade, women in Alaska and other areas of the circumpolar north have been working to revitalize the tattooing tradition. For them it is a response to the long-ago efforts to wipe out cultural practices and entire populations of people, and a celebration of cultural resilience.
Historically, the tattoos were applied using bone, sinew and soot or gunpowder. These days the tattoos are applied with bamboo, thread and black ink on a massage table, sometimes with the soft hum of streaming music in the background.
Some women cite academic and professional accomplishments, like graduating from college, as occasion for getting their tattoos, while others say that making their Alaska Native heritage visible — so as not to “pass” as white or nonnative — motivated their decision.
