The Last Kalinga Tattoo Artist, Whang Od

The story starts here, in the streets of Manila. It's one that could only take place in the Philippines. Gruesome yet beautiful at the same time, full of courage and pain. It's a story that will take Egan and Charlie to the most remote region of the island group. Their trip of a lifetime starts here, in a dimly lit tattoo studio in Manila. Grace Palikas uses a bamboo stick and a thorn from a lemon tree to create her tattoos. The technique is hundreds of years old. Grace learned it from her great aunt, a dignified old lady. She's old, but she's one of the most beautiful women I know, and she's an outstanding tattoo artist. I hope I can still learn a lot from her. Her name's Wangod. She's my great aunt. Egan and Charlie really want to meet Wangod. They've already heard so much about her. Wangod is the last of her kind, the last tattoo artist of the Kalinga tribe, and Grace is her pupil. Everyone in Buscalan has tattoos, women for beauty, while the men have to earn this. In the past, only the brave warriors got a tattoo. Anyone wishing to meet Wangod has to travel to the far north of the Philippines, to the province of Kalinga. Just getting there takes two days. It's not a trip for the faint-hearted. To this day, Kalinga province is more remote and less explored than any other region in the Philippines. Egan and Charlie are best friends. Only together do they have the courage to come here. The roads will end soon. Then they'll have to continue on foot. For a long time, people didn't have the courage to come here, the land of the Kalinga, the headhunters. That's how terrifying the thought of the wild warriors lurking in the bushes was. Egan and Charlie are expected visitors. There's just a narrow path that leads to the village through the jungle. First, they have to climb down into a canyon. Then, they have to walk half a kilometre up into the mountains. They can put a man on the moon, the people here say, but nobody's managed to build a road to Buscalan yet. Very wet so far. It's been challenging. There are some pathways that you really have to put your foot in front of another or else you would slip down. It's quite a challenge so far. Egan and his friend Charlie, the two visitors from Manila, want to meet the one-time headhunters and their unique tattoo art. It's an art form that now only exists in the remote mountains, and the only real practitioner these days is an old lady. Wang Odd, the tattoo artist. But until then, until the tattooing, the gods have other plans for Egan and Charlie. A pig is slaughtered in honour of the visitors. Are the guests from far away even welcome here? It's all written in the liver of the slaughtered animal, according to the people here in Kalinga. When strangers visit us, I search the liver for secret signs. If the liver's big, round, and full, then everything's okay. If it's small or misshapen, then that's a bad omen. The two strangers are allowed to stay. Wang Odd decides that the men will get their tattoos the next day. The history in your eyes is there, so... I'm quite excited about it. I'm hoping that after a few 20 pinches, the rest will be almost equal, so... I'll try to maintain... hold back the tears. Yeah, I think it would be... I'll hold your hand. Charlie's there to hold my hand. The pig has been slaughtered, roasted, and shared out among the villagers. As a thank you, the Kalinga perform their war dance. There's a custom for everything in Kalinga, a rule, a ritual, for birth and for death, for a wedding and for a divorce, for the harvest and the hunt, and for tattooing. Wang Odd prepares the tattooing process carefully. She gets her needles from right behind her hut. She uses thorns from a lemon tree. Real nails would rust. That would result in infections. That's why these thorns are so good. They're long, sturdy, and sharp. They're perfect for tattooing. Wang Odd mixes the ink from charcoal, water, and a dash of sugarcane juice. That'll make the tattoo especially shiny. She marks out the pattern on the skin using a rice stalk. Charlie's going first today. So far, he's not scared. At first, you would think it hurts, but once you get the feel of the first... pinch of the needle or the thorn, you'll get used to it. Well, for me, it's... it's the same. It's the same as getting a real tat with a machine and getting the hand taps. It's totally the same feeling. Of course it hurts, but you just have to take it. Not even Wang Odd knows exactly how old she is. Well, over 90 at any rate. The elderly lady still possesses an elegant beauty. She learned tattooing from her father. She was a young girl at the time. There's no school for tattooing. You either have talent or you don't. When I was young, my friends and I tattooed each other. They practiced on my legs. My tattoos were always the better ones. The Kalinga haven't always been so hospitable to visitors. Until well into the 1930s, strangers had to fear for their lives here. The Kalinga had bloodthirsty battles for land and honour with neighbouring villages too. To deter them, the warriors cut off their opponents' heads and were rewarded with magnificent tattoos. For the Kalinga, they were a sign of courage and strength. The proud warriors of the past are gradually dying off. George Kasing is one of maybe 30 living warriors with tattoos. The main design is a magnificent eagle with huge wings. When the omens were in our favour, we went to battle. It was man against man. We all had a knife, a spear and a machete. My only thought was about killing my opponent. I wasn't nervous at all. It was like a duty to me. I wanted to protect my village. When we got a head, we brought it back to the village and slaughtered a buffalo. The celebratory feasts after the battle must have been quite raucous. In the evening, fires send flames into Kalinga's night sky, just like a hundred years ago. Rice liquor was drunk out of the skulls of enemies. The victorious warriors dance themselves into a trance to the rhythm of the Gangza gongs. The gongs, with the human jawbones, still exist. They're passed on from generation to generation like a treasured heirloom. We always celebrated a victorious battle. We danced and beat the gongs. We know whose jaw this once was. But we don't want to say the name. That would only hurt the relatives. We don't want discord anymore. These days, visitors are mainly adventurers from the city. Wang Odd has spent her whole life tattooing brave headhunters. Egan wants a millipede design. Suddenly I'm nervous now. Number one, I don't know what to expect. But also excited about the final product. This is the first prick. I think this is okay. I don't think the thorn is big enough. Creating tattoos takes time, sometimes days or even weeks. Because it's so painful, long breaks are needed to calm the nerves. You feel it going inside. But yeah, it's basically a repeat of one threshold of pain, and then it just repeats. It's good that she puts on some more ink, because then your skin takes a break also, and then your nerves, I think, just exhales. It's very calculated, the strikes, definitely. Egan isn't the first to be scared. Getting a tattoo is torture, just as it always has been. It's crazy, it's crazy. It's funny, because who would think of submitting to this kind of torture? I cannot answer to the other people, but for me, I think it's a price I have to pay for it. Wangod once had a proud warrior in front of her. He'd beheaded three enemies, but the man couldn't cope with her needle for long. I've seen men and women who faint. Some wet themselves because of the pain. That's why you see some people here who still have unfinished tattoos. They couldn't cope with the pain. Isolated from the world for so long, the Kalinga have so far been able to preserve their culture. The jeepney brings visitors to the village just a few times a week. Grace, Wangod's niece, is also on board. I'm happy to be home. I miss my family and everything that's dear to me. There's no shortage of rice. Maybe there are even some people I can tattoo. The Kalinga gave up headhunting long ago, but occasionally there's still trouble with neighbouring tribes. These days they shoot bullets instead of using spears and knives. But they've always used bamboo and thorns for tattoos. 100 taps per minute. The ink mixes with blood, but Wangod's needle finds its way with precision. You can see it right now. We are in a transition where modern meets old. And I think if I can... I decided to get this because if I can prolong and to tell the story, to share some of that culture and heritage to others, especially to give some meaning to it, not just another art form. Every tattoo has a meaning. The Millipedes' many legs stand for all the people here. We have to walk with the same rhythm. Then we can achieve anything. Anyone wanting to learn the art of tattooing has to feel it, say the Kalinga. They have to experience the pain on their own bodies. As for Grace, she's almost completed the climb up to the village. Grace started tattooing when she was nine. The young woman is still undergoing training. Where's Wangod? Wangod became a teacher as an old woman. She teaches Grace everything, passing on her knowledge like an inheritance. That's why Grace is visiting her home village. Life in the village is so simple and peaceful. The city is just noisy. I prefer to live in the village forever. Nature has always protected the people living in the mountains. But will the Kalinga be able to preserve their exceptional culture in the modern world? Some women got their first tattoo at 13 or 14. The more tattoos you have, the more beautiful you are, the Kalinga say. A tattoo turns a girl into a woman. It lets her find a husband, get married and have children. I got my tattoo as a young woman when I was around 20. Why did you get tattoos? We did it because we wanted more sex appeal, to be more attractive to the men. Wangod never married and she has no children. She does everything on her own, cooking, eating, pounding rice and tattooing, even at her advanced age. My eyesight is still really good. I can do as many tattoos as I want. But who knows if I'll be able to see this well next year. I'll quit when my vision gets blurry. Wangod teaches Grace everything, how she should hold the bamboo stick, what thorns make suitable needles, and how to make precise pricks. Wangod has often allowed Grace to practice on her arm time and again. I'm proud that I'm allowed to tattoo. I've learnt everything I know from Wangod. I'm going to try to be a good tattoo artist. I'm happy that someone's continuing this. I'd be sad if this art form were to die with me. Grace is still young. She has to learn to work hard and be patient and modest. You're doing the tattoo for someone else, not for yourself. For Egan and Charlie, this was the trip of a lifetime, an adventure with the headhunters. I expected hospitality from them, but it was just too much. We were welcomed like family members, and everyone was so nice. If it was cold, they gave us coffee, and whatever we needed, they gave us. During the slaughtering of the pigs, we even had portions of it, and we were treated as equals. It's a trip to the mountains, it's the way of going up. For example, the first one is the stairs. It is the rice fields, right? And the rice fields, of course, that's what you see if you go up. And then the village, and then the protection, and then, of course, that's the summit of the mountain. So that's the whole trip going up. I bring a lot of ink, and I've brought a lot of pain, but it's all worth it. A rewarding, but painful, blood-soaked trip to the Kalinga. Sometimes, keeping a culture alive involves pain.