Book Description

Unpacking the five main Polynesian tattoo styles: Samoan, Marquesan, Tahitian, Hawaiian, and Maori tattoos. Presenting over 400 symbols and their meanings. Fully illustrated with more than 550 images, with 15 original tattoos deconstructed and explained. This book explains the main Polynesian styles of tattooing, presenting each of them with a historical and cultural introduction, highlighting the traditional symbols and their meanings. Fifteen original designs and their stories are examined, showing how to identify and understand their building elements and explaining how they interact with each other to compose a meaningful tattoo. All the original tattoos are broken up into their main parts, outlined for clearer identification. The main parts are then inspected further, revealing the basic building elements and symbols, grouped by meaning. This book comes as an in-depth follow-up to The POLYNESIAN TATTOO Handbook and it extends the study of Polynesian tattoo styles and designs to help understand their origins and purpose, their symbolism, and their creation guidelines.