Painters & Visual Artists Codexery

Whang-od

Last and oldest mambabatok of the Kalinga people.

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Whang-od

Mawg64 · via Wikipedia: Whang-od · CC BY-SA 4.0

People frequently refer to her as the final and most senior mambabatok, a term for a traditional Kalinga tattooist.[1]

Life and work

She learned the art from her father, a master tattooist, starting at age 15, though traditionally only men with special tattooing ancestry could learn.[2] She later broke tradition by choosing only women as her apprentices, the first such recorded instance in Kalinga history.[3] She uses the traditional batok method, hand-tapping ink made from charcoal and water with a thorn from a calamansi or pomelo tree.[4] She performs fortune telling and chants while doing tattoos, with each design carrying symbolic meanings.[3]

She had a boyfriend named Ang-Batang, a Butbut warrior, and performed a batok on him after his first battle victory.[5] Whang-od started her tattooing practice at age 11, creating designs on Butbut headhunters and women.[6] Her father made a special allowance for her because he recognized her skill and promise.[3] The people in her community were agreeable to this choice.[3]

When she was 25 years old, her partner Ang-Batang died in a logging accident; following this, she chose to remain unmarried and has no offspring.[5][7] She uses only Kalinga and Ilocano for conversation, not Filipino or English.[8]

What the cited sources add

A BBC article from 2014 notes that Whang-Od has been inking her tribe for more than eight decades, using a traditional tapping style dating back a thousand years.[9] The same article states that at age 94, she was likely to be the last of her kind.[9] A 2016 BBC article describes her as the last tattoo artist in the Kalinga region, carrying on the 1,000-year tradition of batok.[10] That article also reports that mambabatoks can only teach within their bloodline, so without children she would have been the last.[10]

A 2018 Rappler article confirms she received the Dangal ng Haraya Award from the NCCA for her contributions to traditional tattooing.[11] The Rappler article also notes that since becoming famous, she allows no more than thirty customers to be inked daily, with her initiating the design and her grandnieces finishing it.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Whang-od" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Biyahe ni Drew: Meet Apo Whang-Od, the oldest traditional tattoo artist in Kalinga", YouTube, 13 October 2019; "Legendary tattoo artisan Whang-od celebrates 104th birthday"; "Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho: Munting Obra para kay Apo Whang-Od", Official YouTube channel of GMA Public Affairs, February 26, 2017; Catalan, "Chasing Whang–od, the oldest Kalinga mambabatok", Sun Star Baguio, October 5, 2016; "Whang-od, el mito de la última tatuadora de la tribu filipina Kalinga", La Vanguardia, August 12, 2015; Ratcliffe, "Indigenous tattooist becomes Vogu en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Whang-od" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Springer, "Meet Whang Od Oggay: The Philippines' oldest tattoo artis", CNN, August 6, 2017; Krutak, "Lars Krutak The Last Kalinga Tattoo Artist of the Philippines Lars Krutak", www.larskrutak.com, 2009 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Whang-od" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lowe, "Reviving the art of Filipino tribal tattoos", BBC, May 27, 2014; Springer, "Meet Whang Od Oggay: The Philippines' oldest tattoo artis", CNN, August 6, 2017; Lowe, "Reviving the art of Filipino tribal tattoos", BBC, May 27, 2014; Buccat, "How an old woman tattooed an age-old tradition on the global map", ABS-CBN News; Buccat, "How an old woman tattooed an age-old tradition on the global map", ABS-CBN News; Howard, "The rebirth of a 1,000-year tradition", BBC, January 18, 2016 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Whang-od" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Henson, "NBA star to get body tattoo from local artist", The Philippine Star, July 20, 2017; Lowe, "Reviving the art of Filipino tribal tattoos", BBC, May 27, 2014; "Tattooed by the oldest tattoo artist in the Philippines", CNN, June 19, 2012; Lowe, "Reviving the art of Filipino tribal tattoos", BBC, May 27, 2014; Buccat, "How an old woman tattooed an age-old tradition on the global map", ABS-CBN News (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Whang-od" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ang pag-ibig ni Whang Od ngayong Sabado sa 'Wagas'", www.gmanetwork.com, March 1, 2016; "Ang pag-ibig ni Whang Od ngayong Sabado sa 'Wagas'", www.gmanetwork.com, March 1, 2016; "Ang pag-ibig ni Whang Od ngayong Sabado sa 'Wagas'", www.gmanetwork.com, March 1, 2016; Lowe, "Reviving the art of Filipino tribal tattoos", BBC, May 27, 2014; Daveney, "This 100-Year-Old Female Tattoo Artist Is Cool AF", HuffPost UK, March 29, 2017 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Whang-od" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Text by Kate Springer, "Meet Whang Od Oggay: 100 years of tattoo artistry", CNN Travel, August 6, 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Whang-od" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Almendral, "At 100 or So, She Keeps a Philippine Tattoo Tradition Alive", The New York Times, May 15, 2017 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Whang-od" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Apo Whang-Od And The Indelible Marks Of Filipino Identity", vogue.ph, March 30, 2023 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Lowe, "Reviving the art of Filipino tribal tattoos", BBC, May 27, 2014. facts only, no text reused. bbc.com
  10. Howard, "The rebirth of a 1,000-year tradition", BBC, January 18, 2016. facts only, no text reused. bbc.com
  11. Cimatu, "Whang-od to receive Dangal ng Haraya award", Rappler, June 12, 2018. facts only, no text reused. rappler.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Whang-od (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Test yourself on TriviaCafe: In what year was tattoo artist Whang-od born: 1908, 1910, 1917 or 1939? · More arts trivia

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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