Rihanna: Tattoo You … Or Not?
Rihanna malu
Just when we were all starting to forget about Robbie Williams’ left arm, Inia Taylor has reignited the debate about whether non-Pacific peoples have the right to wear Pacific tattoo by applying a Samoan malu to Rihanna’s right hand. Her tatau, using the traditional chisel and mallet technique, is now a meme supreme after a Youtube video posted by Tiki Tane went viral. As nail-bitingly interesting is the message thread evolving under the video that expresses a range of views about tattoo and indigeneity from people around the globe. No woman should be judged about the choices she willingly makes about her body. So putting that to one side, what is all the fuss about? Can marks of specific identity be shared across cultures? For Inia Taylor, the question has always been a definite thumbs-up, and it’s worth seeing him explain this on the website of Moko Ink. For others, it hinges on whether the wearer has the right cultural/spiritual background to fully appreciate the special meanings, handed-down through generations, of the process, design and responsibilities these marks convey. Ben Harper seemed to get away with his arm moko (Maori tattoo), inked by Te Rangitu Netana in New Zealand, in a way that Robbie Williams didn’t, possibly because his ethnicity and music was a better fit within an indigenous worldview. Robbie Williams also had his done in London by Gordon Toi Hadfield, another degree of separation.
Like all memes we’ll be sure to see Rihanna-style malu spreading across the hands and throughout the lands of impressionable young women, and possibly a few men!
FYI, first European to receive a moko kanohi (full facial Maori tattoo) was the Englishman George Bruce in 1806 in the Bay of Islands, Northland. In later life he described it as process, rather than a mark, that demonstrated his commitment to his Maori wife, Atahoe.
Girly Guide to the Multiverse 