The same author says, on page 109:
The Mattoal, of California, differ from other tribes in that the men tattoo. Their distinctive mark is a round blue spot in the center of the forehead. The women tattoo pretty much all over their faces.
In respect to this matter of tattooing there is a theory entertained by some old pioneers which may be worth the mention. They hold that the reason why the women alone tattoo in all other tribes is that in case they are taken captives their own people may be able to recognize them when there comes an opportunity of ransom. There are two facts which give some color of probability to this reasoning. One is that the California Indians are rent into such infinitesimal divisions, any one of which may be arrayed in deadly feud against another at any moment, that the slight differences in their dialects would not suffice to distinguish the captive squaws. The second is that the squaws almost never attempt any ornamental tattooing, but adhere closely to the plain regulation mark of the tribe.
Blue marks tattooed upon a Mohave woman’s chin denote that she is married. See Whipple (f).
Mr. Gatschet reports that very few Klamath men now tattoo their faces, but such as are still observed have but a single line of black running from the middle of the lower lip to the chin. Half-breed girls appear to have but one perpendicular line tattooed down over the chin while the full-blood women have four perpendicular lines on the chin.
In Bancroft’s Native Races (c), it is stated that the Modoc women tattoo three blue lines, extending perpendicularly from the center and corners of the lower lip to the chin.
The same author on pages 117 and 127 of the same volume says:
The Chippewas have tattooed cheeks and foreheads. Both sexes have blue or black bars or from one to four straight lines to distinguish the tribe to which they belong. They tattoo by entering an awl or needle under the skin and drawing it out, immediately rubbing powdered charcoal into the wounds. * * * On the Yukon river among the Kutchins, the men draw a black stripe down the forehead and the nose, frequently crossing the forehead and cheeks with red lines and streaking the chin alternately with red and black, and the women tattoo the chin with a black pigment.
Stephen Powers, in Overland Monthly, XII, 537, 1874, says of the Normocs:
I saw a squaw who had executed on her cheeks the only representation of a living object which I ever saw done in tattooing. It was a couple of bird’s wings, one on each cheek, done in blue, bottom-edge up, the butt of the wing at the corner of the mouth, and the tip near the ear. It was quite well wrought, both in correctness of form and in delicateness of execution, not only separate feathers but even the filaments of the vane, being finely pricked in.