Tattooing in the Marquesas

This definitive source on the intricate tattoos of Polynesia’s Marquesas Islands offers a rare glimpse of a dying art. Because of the colonial authorities’ 1884 ban on tattooing, there remained only a single surviving tattoo artist at the time of this 1921 survey - and a dwindling number of living examples. These 38 plates of black-and-white drawings and photographs provide an unusually complete and intimate record of a sophisticated art form.

The Marquesas consist of a dozen rugged v…