Polynesian Tattoos 101

Polynesian tattoos, you surely know by now, are not just nice designs.

They are deeply rooted in the culture, and knowing about it is a form of respect and a way to understand some of their aspects better.

The videos in this section are brief introductions to the culture, the purpose, the styles, and the symbols of Polynesian tattoos.
They don't want to be comprehensive lectures, but just a quick summary to give you a more complete picture in order to design better, more conscious tattoos.

Once you have the core notions, if you want to learn more and go a bit deeper, you will find a copy of The Polynesian Tattoo Handbook Vol. 2 within the course materials.

Key Learning Points:

• cultural aspects of Polynesian tattoos

• the importance of honoring the past

• community and service

• balance as a key concept

Once you know about the culture, it becomes easier to understand some of the aspects of these tattoos, some concepts like keeping and increasing personal mana, which stem from cultural beliefs and play an important part in relation to the purpose of these tattoos.

Key Learning Points:

• Polynesian tattoos are not just embellishments

• the main purposes of Polynesian tattoos

Polynesia is a wide area, with many archipelagos often separated by thousands of miles of ocean.

This promoted changes in the style of tattooing, with some traditions being more focused on embellishing the body, and others on scaring enemies.

In this video we'll see what are the specific traits of the five main styles, how to recognize each, and when to use them.

Key learning points:

• Characteristics of Samoan, Marquesan, Hawaiian, Maori, and Tahitian tattoos

• Main purposes of each style

Your Actions for Today:

• Get familiar with the styles looking at the examples in the Handbook

• Look at photos of Polynesian tattoos and identify their style with the help of the examples image

This video is a brief introduction to the symbols and to the quick reference poster that includes elements to represent the most common meanings in the five main styles.

A list of over 400 symbols and their variants, along with their meanings, is in The Polynesian Tattoo Handbook Vol.2, which was linked in a previous video, and is also in the download section.

You can also download from there, and from below, the quick reference poster, to get familiar with the most common symbols and their meanings.
Print it and keep it at hand, it's a great visual aid, and truly priceless if you are just starting out!

Key Learning Points:

• most symbols come from the observation of nature

• each symbol can have one or more meanings

• tattoos are the closest form of writing in ancient Polynesia

• symbols allow to weave a unique story into each tattoo

Your Actions for Today:

• Get familiar with the symbols in the Handbook and with their meanings, as they will be the base for your first tattoo

This section highlights three important concepts that really make a difference when designing proper Polynesian tattoos, three ideas that are rooted in the culture but also reflect visually on the aspect of Polynesian tattoos, defining their fascinating aesthetics:

• Balance

• Breath

• Flow

This first video will show you the importance of Balance.

Key Learning Points:

• Balance in tattoos brings balance to the body

• Balance helps giving importance to all elements

• Polynesian tattoos that seem off or don't look quite right often have issues with balance

Your Actions for Today:

• Look at photos of Polynesian tattoos and compare the visual appeal of balanced tattoos as opposed to those with great variations in size and density of their elements

The second concept we are exploring in this video is Breath.

A "breathing" tattoo is a well designed tattoo: it lets the energy flow, makes the design clearer, and keeps it looking better over time.

Key Learning Points:

• The importance of Breath

• The importance of leaving breath to the elements

The third cornerstone of Polynesian tattoos is Flow, and it includes the flow of the design on the body and the flow of energy through the tattoo, as these two ideas are related and equally important.

Key Learning Points:

• Imagining a tattoo like water helps laying out its structure

• The muscular structure of a body defines its natural lines

• Use them to lay out the structure of the tattoo

• Do not cut the natural lines, use them at your advantage

Your Actions for Today:

• Search for images of the body showing the muscles, see where they start and end and their shape, and draw the flow lines for arms, legs, and torso from different angles.
  A good starting point is looking for "muscles anatomy pictures" on any search engine.

To build a solid house it takes a good foundation.

The foundation to design better Polynesian tattoos is info collection.
If you get this right, you are already halfway to the perfect tattoo.

It's important to know the WHAT (story and meanings) of the desired tattoo, the WHY (why those meanings?), the WHERE (position and size), and the HOW (personal preferences in terms of style).

These are the four pillars of your tattoo, and we'll see in this video why they're important and how to get to know them.

Key Learning Points:

• Info collection done well is fundamental to understand the tattoo

• The WHY is as important as the WHAT

• Take measures and design for the body (WHERE)

• Always ask for example of the preferred style (HOW)

Your Actions for Today:

• Take the example requests from the handbook, and imagine which questions could be asked in each case in order to obtain more details.

• Prepare a set of questions (meanings, reasons for choosing them, measures, examples of preferred style etc.) that you will ask before preparing a new tattoo.
  Example: "Can you tell me more about you and the meanings that you want to represent? Why did you choose each meaning and element above all? Why are they most important to you?"
  Address all the four questions.

Now that we have all the info, we have to organize them in order to understand how they relate and interact to build a single unique story, so the next step of the creation process is giving priorities to the meanings, identifying the primary and secondary ones, and understanding the back story that supports and connects them all.

Key Learning Points:

• The primary meaning is usually the first one, or the one that is more present in the request

• Never be afraid to ask questions

• The more info, the easier to "connect the dots"

• Never choose a negative event or meaning as the main focus of a tattoo

Your Actions for Today:

• Understand that everything in life has a dual nature. Even negative events often bring something positive with them.
  Learning from a failure makes it not a failure anymore.
  Can't find a positive side to the loss of a person? Focus on the good that was shared with that person: surely they want to be remembered at their best.
  Don't focus on the difficulty, but on how it was overcome.
  Challenge yourself to see what can be the positive of every situation.

You have the meanings ordered by priorities.
It's now time to identify a list of possible symbols for each meaning.

We are not selecting the final ones yet, we are just listing all the possible choices and making the first considerations (unless you already have some practice, in which case at this stage you will already have an idea of which ones would work best).

Key Learning Points:

• Primary meanings deserve more space, more complex elements that can incorporate other symbols within

• Secondary elements follow and support the primary ones, they are not as big and they could be composing elements of the primary ones

• The back story usually has smaller elements that serve as support for the primary and secondary ones, tying it all together

Your Actions for Today:

• Check the examples for the Tahitian style in the handbook and see what elements were chosen to be primary, what are secondary, and notice the different size used for each

Now that we are finally drawing the draft, we start by choosing which symbols we will use for the primary elements based on the available space and number of meanings, and we will position them within the outline of the tattoo.
More space allows for bigger primary elements made of smaller symbols.
This is a rough draft, but it already gives an idea of how the tattoo will be structured.

Key Learning Points:

• The first draft is a very rough sketch where you place only the primary elements based on their meaning and importance. They set the main structure and all other elements will follow

• Size and position are the keys to show importance: central and bigger means more important

• The storyline will go from back to front, and from bottom to top

Your Actions for Today:

• Going back to the Tahitian style examples, focus on the position of the primary elements and try to redraw the draft for each tattoo.
  Would you do it differently? Post your draft in the Facebook group to share your idea and receive feedback

This final step includes adding the secondary elements and completing the tattoo with the support of the back story.
It's important at this stage to find relations between all meanings so that they all integrate into a unique story that develops throughout the tattoo.
Once finished, look for unbalanced parts and adjust them.

Key Learning Points:

• Improve the draft by moving and adapting elements that don't flow along the lines of the body

• Add symbols to the primary elements according to their meaning and story

• Place secondary elements to support the primary ones

• Complete the tattoo by using the back story to tie everything together meaningfully

• Adjust unbalanced parts if you see any

Your Actions for Today:

• After you identified the primary elements in the Tahitian examples from the handbook, and how they were laid down, focus now on the other meanings, and how they support the main ones.
  Check for recurring concepts (like the tiki on the sides looking in opposite directions)

Massive congratulations!
You have crossed the finish line!

It was a short but intense voyage, and I hope you found valuable information in it, and the inspiration to start drawing right away.

The examples in the next section will show everything we have seen so far put into practice. They are a valuable resource to see the drawing process in action, and to have a closer look at the reasons behind the choice of the elements and their placement.
You'll also notice some common patterns, which are often found in Polynesian tattoos, like placing two tiki on the sides, stepping stones at the base, using the turtle to represent family...)

Keep practicing!

Your Actions for Today:

• Celebrate!

Welcome to the examples section!

Follow me in the creation of this manta tattoo for the upper back, from start to finish, to see how the creation process works and how I go from info collection to finishing the design.

This calf band tattoo tells the story of a couple who finally had a son after years of struggling.

This last example goes in detail through one tattoo from the Handbook vol. 2, specifying the reasons behind the choice of each element's placement.

Well done getting to here!

We want you to create amazing Polynesian tattoos. Period.

This also means to know more about the cultural aspects of this Art, so we attached the handbooks to the course to help you dive deeper into the culture and to get to know all the symbols you'll need to start working: 600+ symbols and variants along with their meanings, collected and ordered by style.

The visual quick reference and the meanings dictionary are additional resources to help you find on the fly the right symbols for the most common meanings.

Shape your dreams!

We hope you enjoyed the course, and that this last additional lesson will save you some headaches and make your life easier from the start.
Well done for reaching here!