Do you know that Indonesia have also tribal tattoo motif? And this tribal tattoo motif is ancient. There is one tribe in Indonesia that renowned to have this kind of tattoo design. The Dayak Iban tribe, in Kalimantan. We will talk about this tribe before we tell you how you can get the tribal tattoo in Ubud too.

Tattoo on Dayak language is ‘tutang’. Not every Dayak people have tattoo, and each person may not have the same tattoo designs. If they do have the same design, it must be already been customize. Every tattoo design has meaning. The motif usually inspired by animals and plants. For example, the nobleman of the tribe usually has a hornbill bird to represent heaven because the hornbill bird loves to be in a high place. The spiral motif on Tali Nyawa inspired by frog. Rosette of Borneo symbolizes a transformation from boyhood to manhood.

The tattoo design on Dayak’s Iban also has meaning to protect them from bad spirits, or as a mark that they pass the test of ‘Kinyah’, the traditional martial arts of Dayak.

The placement of their tattoo can’t be put carelessly. As their belief, the black color tattoo will turn to gold and considered as the path of eternal after they passed away.

The tattooing method of Dayak Iban is hand tapping. The hand tapping tool is thorns from the orange tree, the ink using deep black of soot color. The traditional way of their tattooing method is by tapping the skin by hand using a wood stick with a needle attached to it and another wood stick as a batter. They do rituals too before having a tattoo session.

Now, if you visiting Bali and stay or come to Ubud, you can get a tribal tattoo in Ubud, in our studio, at Cap Bagong Tatu studio. Here is our video if you would like to know about the hand tapping way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw_pA0lwO90&t=3s.

And this is our portfolio doing the tribal tattoo by hand tapping https://capbagongtatu.com/handtapping/.