File:Pens for tattooing (17318814895).jpg - Wikipedia

Description

Pens for tattooing. They are both made of small pieces of sharpened bone fastened at approximately right angles to the handle. One pen is a single point; the other has three small teeth set closely together. These examples would only have been used on women.

Figi @mcrmuseum

1. MMRapaNui

Places where the two realms of ao and po met were dangerous because you might come across a god or a spirit.

The boundary between these realms was crucial and potential conduits, such as volcanoes, caves and certain parts of the body had to be controlled using rituals. Such places was regarded as ‘tapu’ (the origin of our word taboo) and special precautions had to be taken. One form of bodily protection took the form of tattoos around orifices, for example, the mouth, and ears. The Rapanui were some of the most heavily tattooed of the Polynesian peoples.