

Ta Moko was worn by both men and women. It was applied to the face and buttocks of men, and to the chin, lips and shoulders of women. Depending on their ranking, they may also


There were no set patterns to the Ta Moko and the meaning of the Ta Moko was dependent on its placement on the face. The left side of the face related to the father's history and the right side to the mother's history.
Originally, Ta Moko was chiselled into the skin using an albatross bone. The pigmentations used were Carui gum and dye from other vegetation that was rendered to a soot and then mixed with oil. Each tribal area used different pigments.

Huhana Rare One story of how Ta Moko came to The Maori One day a Maori chief, Mataora, was visited by young people from Rarohenga (the underworld). With them was the daughter of the underworld ruler Uetonga. Her name was Niwareka and Mataora fell in love with her. They got married and were happy together until one day Mataora became jealous of Niwareka and was angry enough to hit her. So she returned home to the underworld. Mataora, grieving over his actions, followed her to Uetonga's house. Uetonga was practising tattooing and agreed to tattoo Mataora, whose face was only painted. During the tattooing, Mataora sung of his sorrow and his search for Niwareka in the underworld. Niwareka heard the news and re

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