Tā moko | Māori tattoos: history, practice, and meanings 

https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/discover-collections/read-watch-play/maori/ta-moko-maori-tattoos-
history

Discover the history and practice of tā moko, and find out why the lines of a moko carved in skin
represent much more than a tattoo.

Origins and traditional method of tā moko

The Western and Eastern Pacific method of tattooing is based on the use of broad toothed combs of
varying widths called uhi, dipped in dark pigment, and struck into the skin with small mallets known
as tā. The teeth of the comb pierce the skin and deposit the pigment. Māori brought this method of
tattooing with them from Eastern Polynesia.

As the art and practice of tā moko developed in isolation in Aotearoa New Zealand, Māori pioneered
the use of smaller, narrower uhi without teeth that cut grooves through the skin.

Uhi Tā Moko (tattooing instruments)(link is external), 1800-1900, New Zealand. Te Papa (WE000300)

This process was followed by the application of small, toothed uhi combs that applied the pigment.
This method of tā moko applied to the face is a form of scarification, which in practice is very similar
to wood carving, and is characterised by deep grooved furrows stained with dark pigment.

Meanings behind the motifs

The meaning and significance of these design motifs appears to be a complex interplay between high
aesthetic and a visual language that underscores artistic excellence, identity and role.

Many of the design motifs are universal, especially the spiral elements applied to the nose, cheek,
and lower jaws, and the curvilinear rays on the forehead and from the nose to the mouth. The
remaining elements were carefully chosen to accentuate and enhance the individual features, giving
meaning to the expression Mataora, the living face.

Moko may also indicate social status, role, and expressions of identity though genealogy, but this
remains unclear.

Tā moko(link is external), 1906, by Leslie Hinge. Te Papa (B.000832)

Tā moko in the 19th and 20th century

Tā moko has undergone significant changes since its practice was disrupted through colonisation
and the adoption of Christianity in the mid-19th century. 

Missionaries, and Pākehā generally, perceived it as a distasteful practice, even while being somewhat
fascinated by it. 
Sydney Parkinson, Head of Otegoowgoow. Son of a New Zealand Chief, the curiously tataoued. Plate
21. From the book: A journal of a voyage to the South Seas, in his Majesty’s ship the Endeavour (link is
external), 1784. Te Papa (RB000268/109a)

This view particularly affected a young generation of Māori men specifically, and to a lesser extent
women. 
The last men to be tattooed during this period died during the 1920s, but women from various
districts continued to be tattooed through to the 1920s.

How the tools and process of tā moko changed

The tattooing process itself changed early in the contact period, and certainly by the 1840s metals
started to replace bone in the manufacture of uhi, tattooing chisels, and combs.

One especially interesting account of the use of metal uhi occurred with the tattooing of Iwikau Te
Heuheu of Ngāti Tūwharetoa (Taupō district) in 1841. The operation was witnessed by Edward
Jerningham Wakefield of the New Zealand Company, who commented:

‘The instruments used were not of bone, as they used formerly to be; but a graduated set of iron
tools, fitted with handles like adzes… The man spoke to me with perfect nonchalance for quarter of
an hour, although the operator continued to strike the little adzes into his flesh with a light wooden
hammer the whole time, and his face was covered with blood.’  [Edward Jerningham
Wakefield. Adventure in New Zealand from 1839 to 1844. Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd, Wellington,
1908, p.425]

But perhaps the biggest shift in practice was the adoption of needle tattooing during the late 19th
century and early 20th century. The use of grouped needles became the most common form of
tattooing throughout the world during this period, and it was the form most commonly applied to
pūkauae, the female chin tattoo, in the early 20th century. It’s still the most ubiquitous form
practised in the world today.

Louis John Steele, Portrait of a young Maori woman with moko(link is external), 1891, oil on canvas. Te
Papa (1995-0015-1)
Reclaiming moko

The ever-decreasing generation of kuia mokokuia mokotattooed female/women elders inspired a

young group of artists and carvers following the protest movement of the 1970s to reclaim moko as
a unique expression of Māori identity.

Combined with the interest of academics like Michael King and the continued popularity of the
published works of Gottfried Lindauer and Charles Frederick Goldie, and colonial artists like George
French Angas, it helped reawaken the interest of a new generation in this venerable and unique art
form.

The 1980s saw the rebirth of moko, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that it really started to gain any real
currency as an authentic artistic form and contemporary cultural practice.

But it really hit its stride in the 2000s. In the course of a single generation, a dedicated group of
determined and courageous tohunga tā moko and tattoo practitioners reclaimed and revitalised the
cultural practice of tā moko. A continuously growing demand from young Māori and not-so-young
Māori has ensured that moko is now an increasingly seen and accepted part of mainstream New
Zealand.

Sharing tattoo knowledge from around the Pacific

It’s important to note that it’s impossible to discuss moko in contemporary New Zealand society
without mentioning the hugely significant role that our Samoan whanaunga, our Pacific cousins,
have played in revitalising tā moko, especially pūhoropūhorothigh tattoos, in generously sharing
their knowledge and mentoring Māori in the practice of customary tā tatau.