{"id":28327,"date":"2023-11-25T11:53:04","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T11:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/skin-deep-sindhs-indigenous-tattoo-culture-at-risk-of-fading-away\/"},"modified":"2023-11-25T11:53:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T11:53:04","slug":"skin-deep-sindhs-indigenous-tattoo-culture-at-risk-of-fading-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/skin-deep-sindhs-indigenous-tattoo-culture-at-risk-of-fading-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Skin deep: Sindh\u2019s indigenous tattoo culture at risk of fading away"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“These tattoos are the only belongings that remain with us till our last breath because everything else in this world remains here.”<\/p>\n

\n

Rattni, 55, remembers clear as day when she got her first tattoo at 13 years of age. It was her mother that gave it to her. \u201cIn our community, when a girl nears the age of her first menstrual period, we [the mothers] make a tattoo on her body. Likewise, when they get married,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rattni\u2019s neck, cheek, forearm, wrist, and the back side of her palm all bear different tattoos, each with a distinct story. She pointed towards 13-year-old Kamli Mewasi sat next to her, \u201cShe is still young so she could only get two tattoos, but as she grows older she will get more tattoos on her body like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese tattoos are the only belongings that remain with us till our last breath because everything else in this world remains here. We wish to get more tattoos on our bodies so that we die with such signs on our body parts. It may please God as well as our souls. We really feel incomplete without them,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Symbols and identity markers<\/h2>\n

Tattooing is a primitive part of the ancient culture and tradition for the women of Sindh\u2019s Hindu communities. The women of Kachhi, Jogi, Mewasi, Rabari, Kolhi, and many other Hindu communities of southern Sindh have kept this art alive for centuries. Unfortunately, however, the custom may not be around for much longer.<\/p>\n

The word tattoo itself comes from the Polynesian word, \u2018tatau\u2019<\/em> \u2014 originating from the tapping sounds of the tool made during tattooing. Different communities use other words for the practice, such as Gondna, Trazva, and Tryjoya.<\/p>\n

For the Sindhi Hindu communities, some tattoos are considered significant signs of their religious belief, while others are considered identification symbols for belonging to a particular community, caste or clan. Some also showcase the possessions they own such as jewellery and money, emotions like love or hate, or their closeness to nature.<\/p>\n

A tattoo depicting a heart and arrow. \u2014 Photo by author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Many women have these tattoos without knowing the real meaning or significance they hold because the tattoo artists happen to be elderly women who do not explain why they make the tattoos. Many among them believe that drawing tattoos on their bodies will enhance their beauty and health.<\/p>\n

These tattoos are etched on various parts of their bodies, such as the forehead, face, hands, arms, neck, chin, lips, palms, legs and feet. The designs range from depictions of animals, birds, flowers, and trees to symbols of social activities.<\/p>\n

A group of women fetching water is a common tattoo image in Kachhi, Jogi, and Mewasi communities. It is meant to reflect the scarcity of water in their communities.<\/p>\n

The women of Tharparkar and other water scare areas of Sindh\u2019s coastal belt use clay pots to carry water. These pots are placed between rolled cotton cloth pieces on their heads. This rolled cloth is called senhori<\/em>. Tattoos of senhoris<\/em> are considered a symbol of female friendship. Such tattoo designs are mostly noticeable on the forearms and the backs of palms. Many of the female tattoo-makers are often friends amongst themselves and draw tattoos on each other.<\/p>\n

A deer tattoo, meanwhile, represents prosperity and is commonly made on the forearm. Horses are associated with the sun, wooden fans with air, crocodiles with the goddess Ganga, and camels with the folk-god, Gogaji.<\/p>\n

Forehead tattoos are an identity marker for Jogi and Mewasi communities as a small cross tattoo on the cheek is for the the Kachhi and Kolhi communities. This cross is also known as \u2018Ronkhri\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A young Mewasi girl smiles for the camera. \u2014 Photo by author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A young girl with a Makhhari<\/em> tattoo. \u2014 Photo by author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Mewasi women make a moon and star on their foreheads between their eyebrows which represents the third eye of goddess Shiva.<\/p>\n

The identification symbol for Jogi women is called \u2018Makhhari\u2019<\/em>. This tattoo is bigger compared to the others. The Makhhari<\/em> is a big locust drawn on the centre of the forehead. The Jogis believe that tattoos of snakes and scorpions protect them from deadly creatures.<\/p>\n

The female tattoo artists of Sindh<\/h2>\n

Sukhaan Jogan is an eminent tattoo artist in the Jogi community of Umerkot. She lives in the Sodho Jogi colony and has etched countless tattoos for girls and women in her colony.<\/p>\n

According to her, every tattoo she makes holds meaning and significance. She also promotes this art form among other women of her community. \u201cI can copy any tattoo by seeing it just once. The Makhhari<\/em> tattoo is definitely one of the most important designs for our community due to its significance of being our community identification. I have taught Makhhari<\/em> and many other tattoos to almost every woman in this area and that is the reason every woman has now become an expert tattooist.\u201d<\/p>\n

She further explained, \u201cThe tattoo designer uses a hand poke technique. The ink used is a unique mixture of wooden coal, goat milk and water, applied with a needle. Therefore, all tattoos are coloured black. Before applying the needle, we first make the design with a matchstick. Many of us apply it on the ground first before sketching it directly on the skin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hand-poked tattoos with symbols. \u2014 Photo by author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

She also explained that the process is relatively painless, but younger girls are afraid and often cry from the fear of needles. \u201cSomeone holds them during this process,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Rattni Kachhi lives in the village of Ghulam Mohammad Mari. In this village, Kachhi and Mewasi communities have been living with each other for years.<\/p>\n

Rattni explained why it is only women that get tattoos. \u201cMostly our girls get tattoos on their bodies before marriage. If there is no tattoo on the body of a bride, the in-laws criticise her and call her a camel. It also shows that her parents are very poor, that they could not even make any tattoos on her body. This happened to be the main reason why we started tattooing our girls\u2019 bodies from the age of 10-12 years. If we make tattoos before this age, they would break and dissipate with a growing body, so this is the perfect age to start making tattoos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rattni\u2019s village does not have any female tattoo artists. Due to this, they have to rely on male tattoo artists from different villages and cities who visit during festivals or specifically to make tattoos. \u201cThey charge Rs200-300 from us for each tattoo,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dr Rafique Wassan is an anthropologist and currently teaches at the anthropology and archaeology department at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro. He explained that anthropologists have cross-culturally studied tattoo-making as body art.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe study of body arts in anthropology covers a wide range of decorative objects and expressive cultures of aesthetics. For anthropologists, art is not limited to songs and music; tattoos are also part of body decorative art and an expression of culture as a way of life. Anthropologists see the culture of tattoo art through a symbolic approach that holds certain meanings. Every culture has symbols that reflect its customs, traditions and religion.<\/p>\n

Anthropologists understand that symbols of various kinds in human society tend to communicate cultural values and meanings.\u201c<\/p>\n

A woman with multiple face tattoos. \u2014 Photo by author<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

However, today, well-to-do families of these communities are slowly leaving this tradition. Ramshi Kacchi, an eminent male member of the Kachhi community, said: \u201cWe are not making tattoos on our girl\u2019s bodies anymore. In our family, only my mother has a body tattoo. We 1700913184 live with people of other religions who are not aware of tattoos. We go to their weddings and funerals and also attend their rituals and rites so we are leaving this tradition. We think these tattoos are not important for us in this society. We are not leaving our religion, we are only leaving this tradition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite its importance, the ancient tradition and art form is dying as many families have stopped such practices. However, the footprints of this culturally rich tradition still exist in the southern regions of Sindh and we must not let it go forgotten.<\/p>\n\n

Header image:<\/strong> Indigenous Hindu women and girls from Sindh with a variety of tattoos. \u2014 Photos by author<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“These tattoos are the only belongings that remain with us till our last breath because everything else in this world remains here.” Rattni, 55, remembers clear as day when she got her first tattoo at 13 years of age. It was her mother that gave it to her. \u201cIn our community, when a girl nears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/09174041746dc0f.jpg?r=174933","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}