Whang-od Oggay

Whang-od Oggay is the oldest traditional Filipino Kalinga tattooist. She’s a legend, a national treasure, and, I’ll say it, a total babe! To anyone who says tattoos don’t look good when you’re older, I present Oggay. “Tattoos here represent beauty. A tattoo turns a girl into a woman, and the more tattoos you have, the more beautiful you are.”

In western culture, tattoos can be a form of rebellion, an expression of individuality. Filipino tattoos symbolize unity with your tribe. They show who you belong to, which resonates with me. Both of my tattoos are memorials for my grandparents, who came from northern Luzon, the same island as Oggay. I have a tattoo on my right arm for my grandpa, and one on my left for my grandma, which gives me the feeling that they’re on either side of me going forward.

Oggay says, “When you die, a tattoo is the only thing that will remain on your body, so it is a treasure, a treasure that lasts.” Nowadays, more young women have taken up the ancient art under Oggay’s guidance. “The women have more interest and passion in carrying on this millennium-old technique,” she says, “And they are patient. Men cannot be as still and precise for long periods of time as a woman can.”

I’ve been thinking about what embroidery shares with tattooing. There are hours of repetitive motions that can be meditative, there’s the use of a needle to apply color, and of course, there are a thousand little stabs (the literal definition of Japanese sashiko). In the Philippines, we have our own embroidery styles, which you are familiar with if you’ve ever seen a barong tagalog.

I think many types of women’s labor are art in this way. Nail art for example is so precise, so creative, and also adorns the body like tattoo and embroidery. I believe that art doesn’t just live in museums. The art of creating your home and your appearance is so beautiful to me because in many cases it is also fleeting. You wash your carefully painted eyeliner at night, and you remove your carefully painted nail polish after a week or two. It’s ephemeral by nature, but no less valuable. Tattoos, by contrast, last forever, but surely they change over time. What’s more beautiful than change? Oggay wears her change on her skin, as we all will.