The tattooing is always the work of women, generally members of the family, both on men and on women. First the figure is drawn with charcoal, and if it suits the taste then begins the pricking with the thorn of a citrus or a fine bone of some animal. It is very painful and only a small spot can be pricked at one time, so long as the tattooee can stand it. If the pain is too violent, the wounds are gently pressed with a certain leaf that has been warmed, in order to soothe the pain, and the work is continued only after three or four days. No special names are given to the figures; those are chosen which suit the taste. Children are never tattooed at the wish of the parents; it is entirely a matter of individual choice.
Mr. Forbes, in Journ. Anthrop. Inst. G. B. and I., August, 1883, p. 10, says that in Timor Laut, an island of the Malay archipelago—
Both sexes tattoo a few simple devices, circles, stars, and pointed crosses, on the breast, on the brow, on the cheek, and on the wrists, and scar themselves on the arms and shoulders with red-hot stones, in imitation of immense smallpox marks, in order to ward off that disease. * * * I have, however, seen no one variola-marked, nor can I learn of any epidemic of this disease among them.
Prof. Brauns, of Halle, reports, Science, III, No. 50, p. 69, that among the Ainos of Yazo the women tattoo their chins to imitate the beards of the men.
Carl Bock (a) says:
All the married women here are tattooed on the hands and feet and sometimes on the thighs. The decoration is one of the privileges of matrimony and is not permitted to unmarried girls.
In Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, London, 1876, p. 94, it is said that in Mangaia, of the Hervey group, the tattoo is in imitation of the stripes on the two kinds of fish, avini and paoro, the color of which is blue. The legend of this is kept in the song of Iná.
Elisée Reclus (b) says:
Most of the Dayaks tattoo the arms, hands, feet, and thighs; occasionally also breast and temples. The designs, generally of a beautiful blue color on the coppery ground of the body, display great taste, and are nearly always disposed in odd numbers, which, as among so many other peoples, are supposed to be lucky.