Post #432961 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Feb 6, 2009 6:36 PM

Hot damn, you are right, here he is!:

....so these WERE actual tattoos...though very unique, and not common:

Waitaminit...how come YOU asked the question -and then you supply all the answers? :) I mean how much closer do you wanna get than that guy, and those carvings you posted...?

My knowledge of Tattoo traditions is limited, when I hear "Marquesan Tattoos" I think of something along the lines of THIS:

But apparently that graphic style (the Cook island one) was not unknown on other islands:

Since there are so few carvings and images of this style in existence:
I have been wondering sometimes if there are cases (like in the case of the Tahitian Cannibal Carvings) where a style had become extinct because no primary examples survived, but was remembered by some old carvers, who then used it in tourist carvings, making those the only evidence left of that particular form!