- end_line
- 1070
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1009
- text
- CHAPTER VIII.
THE TATTOOERS OF LA DOMINICA
For a while leaving Little Jule to sail away by herself, I will here
put down some curious information obtained from Hardy.
The renegado had lived so long on the island that its customs were
quite familiar; and I much lamented that, from the shortness of our
stay, he could not tell us more than he did.
From the little intelligence gathered, however, I learned to my
surprise that, in some things, the people of Hivarhoo, though of the
same group of islands, differed considerably from my tropical friends
in the valley of Typee.
As his tattooing attracted so much remark, Hardy had a good deal to say
concerning the manner in which that art was practised upon the island.
Throughout the entire cluster the tattooers of Hivarhoo enjoyed no
small reputation. They had carried their art to the highest perfection,
and the profession was esteemed most honourable. No wonder, then, that
like genteel tailors, they rated their services very high; so much so
that none but those belonging to the higher classes could afford to
employ them. So true was this, that the elegance of one’s tattooing was
in most cases a sure indication of birth and riches.
Professors in large practice lived in spacious houses, divided by
screens of tappa into numerous little apartments, where subjects were
waited upon in private. The arrangement chiefly grew out of a singular
ordinance of the Taboo, which enjoined the strictest privacy upon all
men, high and low, while under the hands of a tattooer. For the time,
the slightest intercourse with others is prohibited, and the small
portion of food allowed is pushed under the curtain by an unseen hand.
The restriction with regard to food, is intended to reduce the blood,
so as to diminish the inflammation consequent upon puncturing the skin.
As it is, this comes on very soon, and takes some time to heal; so that
the period of seclusion generally embraces many days, sometimes several
weeks.
All traces of soreness vanished, the subject goes abroad; but only
again to return; for, on account of the pain, only a small surface can
be operated upon at once; and as the whole body is to be more or less
embellished by a process so slow, the studios alluded to are constantly
filled. Indeed, with a vanity elsewhere unheard of, many spend no small
portion of their days thus sitting to an artist.
To begin the work, the period of adolescence is esteemed the most
suitable. After casting about for some eminent tattooer, the friends of
the youth take him to his house to have the outlines of the general
plan laid out. It behoves the professor to have a nice eye, for a suit
to be worn for life should be well cut.
Some tattooers, yearning after perfection, employ, at large wages, one
or two men of the commonest order—vile fellows, utterly regardless of
appearances, upon whom they first try their patterns and practise
generally. Their backs remorselessly scrawled over, and no more canvas
remaining, they are dismissed and ever after go about, the scorn of
their countrymen.
Hapless wights! thus martyred in the cause of the Fine Arts.
- title
- Chunk 1