{"id":122131,"date":"2018-03-09T11:00:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T16:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=122131"},"modified":"2018-03-08T11:11:55","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T16:11:55","slug":"the-last-tattooed-women-of-kalinga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/03\/09\/the-last-tattooed-women-of-kalinga\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Tattooed Women of Kalinga"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Jake Verzosa, Abo Nao Sicdawag,\u00a0b. 1924, Lubo, Tanudan<\/em>,\u00a02011.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

When Whang-Od was twenty-five,\u00a0the man she loved\u00a0was killed in a logging accident. She had never married, nor did she have children. After the death of her boyfriend, she dedicated herself to her role as <\/em>mamababatok, or tattoo artist. Whang-Od\u00a0is now\u00a0101, and in the Cordillera mountains of the northern Philippines, where she lives among the Kalinga people, she is a legend.<\/em><\/p>\n

Between 2009 and 2013, the Manila-based photographer Jake Verzosa traveled to the Cordillera mountains and photographed Kalinga women whose bodies bear these tattoos, known as <\/em>batok. Whang-Od is the last <\/em>mamabatok, and\u00a0<\/em>The Last Tattooed Women of Kalinga<\/a>, a collection of Verzosa\u2019s\u00a0photographs,\u00a0documents her work.\u00a0Alternately described as \u201cdead,\u201d \u201cdying,\u201d \u201cextinct,\u201d or \u201cendangered,\u201d <\/em>batok is a practice that lives on in Versoza\u2019s images, and also in the Kalinga, who are, Verzosa emphasizes, still here. \u201cWhen I pass on,\u201d says Whang-Od, \u201cI will bring my tattoos with me in the afterlife. Everything else is left behind.\u201d<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sin-ao Gammod,\u00a0b. 1933, Lubo, Tanudan<\/em>,\u00a02011.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Fang-od Oggay, b. 1920, Buscalan, Tinglayan,\u00a0<\/em>2011.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kannao La-ib, b. 1939, Buscalan, Tinglayan<\/em>,\u00a02011.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bayada Gumaad,\u00a0b. 1933, Lubo, Tanudan<\/em>,\u00a02013.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Catalina Dangpason,\u00a0b. 1948, Dacalan, Tanudan<\/em>,\u00a02011.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  When Whang-Od was twenty-five,\u00a0the man she loved\u00a0was killed in a logging accident. She had never married, nor did she have children. After the death of her boyfriend, she dedicated herself to her role as mamababatok, or tattoo artist. Whang-Od\u00a0is now\u00a0101, and in the Cordillera mountains of the northern Philippines, where she lives among the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[33212,33216,5465,33213,33215,33214],"class_list":["post-122131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-jake-verzosa","tag-kalinga","tag-philippines","tag-steidl","tag-tattoo","tag-whang-od"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Last Tattooed Women of Kalinga<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Jake Verzosa's photographs, the practice of batok lives on.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/03\/09\/the-last-tattooed-women-of-kalinga\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Last Tattooed Women of Kalinga by The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"March 9, 2018 \u2013   When Whang-Od was twenty-five,\u00a0the man she loved\u00a0was killed in a logging accident. 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