{"id":225411,"date":"2025-11-14T10:13:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T20:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=225411"},"modified":"2025-11-15T22:17:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T08:17:23","slug":"filipino-exhibit-links-tattoos-maps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/11\/14\/filipino-exhibit-links-tattoos-maps\/","title":{"rendered":"Exhibit links Filipino tattoos, maps across centuries"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"tattoo
Spiritual Journey tattoo artist Ronna Ventigan draws a tattoo design on King James Mangoba’s arm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ancestor spirit represents my deep appreciation to my ancestors, who I feel are always guiding me in life.
—King James Mangoba (See the video he made about the event<\/a>) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As part of its 50th anniversary celebration<\/a>, Hamilton Library\u2019s Philippine Collection<\/a> and the Center for Philippine Studies at the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa opened Cartographies of Skin and Soil: Tattoos, Resistance, and 1500s Philippine Colonial Maps<\/a><\/em>, an exhibition linking 1500s colonial maps with tattoos as living archives of Filipino cultural memory, on view through February 2026.<\/p>\n

Opening events, held October 15–17, drew more than 100 participants for workshops, talks and live tattoo demonstrations. Attendees explored how Filipinos have used body art and the written word to resist erasure—from rare 16th-century maps and letters from the Philippine Revolution to underground newspapers from the Marcos era, all part of Hamilton\u2019s Philippine Collection.<\/p>\n

Mapping identity through body and archive<\/h2>\n

Philippine Studies Librarian Elena Clariza opened the program with a presentation on early colonial maps, connecting “fragile maps on paper with living maps of the body—tattoos as archives of ancestral knowledge and cultural memory.”<\/p>\n

\"clariza
Elena Clariza opens the program at Hamilton Library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Guest artists from California\u2019s Spiritual Journey Tattoo Shop and members of Tatak ng Apat na Alon (Mark of the Four Waves) demonstrated traditional hand poke and tapping tattoo techniques, sharing their nearly 30-year effort to revive Indigenous Filipino tattoo practices. <\/p>\n

“In the beginning it was just for us to find our identity, to represent the culture in some way,” said Elle Festin, tattoo artist at Spiritual Journey and a Datu (chief) of the Mark of the Four Waves tribe. “It\u2019s important to get the tattoos to show the resistance and to revolt against the systematic colonial mentality.”<\/p>\n

UH<\/abbr> community connects to heritage<\/h2>\n

For King James Mangoba, a UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa double major in communication & marketing and Hamilton Library social media content creator, the event was a personal and cultural milestone.<\/p>\n

\"magonba
King James Magonba with his finished tatttoo by Ronna Ventigan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“The rice symbolizes my family\u2019s livelihood of rice farming back in the Philippines. The ancestor spirit represents my deep appreciation to my ancestors, who I feel are always guiding me in life,” he said. “This tattoo is a permanent reminder of where I came from and my appreciation to my ancestors who came before me.”<\/p>\n

Doctoral candidate Matthew Melendez, from the College of Education<\/a>, participated in the tattoo sessions. “Receiving knowledge from the Tatak ng Apat na Alon tribe through our cultural portal of batok<\/em> (tattooing) has profoundly transformed me from within,” he said.<\/p>\n

The event was co-sponsored by UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s Center for Southeast Asian Studies and Center for Philippine Studies, and Spiritual Journey Tattoo Shop. To support programs like this at Hamilton Library, visit the Philippine Collection Endowment Fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more about the exhibit and workshop at Hamilton Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Mark Mark of the Four Waves members visit the Philippine Studies section at Hamilton Library.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cartographies of Skin and Soil explores Filipino identity, resistance and cultural memory through maps and traditional tattoos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":225420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[105,493,95,661,944,225,1466,128,1314,774,73,319,9],"class_list":["post-225411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-art","tag-center-for-philippine-studies","tag-college-of-education","tag-communications","tag-filipino","tag-history","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-manoa-library","tag-manoa-sustainability","tag-marketing","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-foundation","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t