Pe'a Tattoo - Mr Tele'a

This Term we have been learning about Symbolism and art. But for the last couple of weeks we have been looking at Symbolism and tattoos.

There are different tattoos in the world, but the common one we have been looking at is the Cultural tattoos.

Our extension site had questions like... Would you get a tattoo? Why would you get a tattoo? What made you get the tattoo? We were all luckily enough to get the opportunity to see a Pe’a in real life. How we got this opportunity was through the beautiful Mrs Tele’a, who asked her husband is he could take off work to come in and show us his tatau.

We asked Mr Tele’a question like.. Was it a choice or a must? Did you get a choice of what design you wanted? Of course Mr Tele’a answered, It was a choice for all of them. Mr Tele’a got the tattoo with his older brothers. And he did not get to pick what design he wanted. The tattooist just started the tattoo. He also said that the tattooist didn’t have a piece of paper to copy of, he just went hard.

I bet you're wondering, What kind of tattoo did Mr Tele’a get? He got a Pe’a tattoo which is a traditional male tattoo of Samoa. It was originally called a Malofie but it has changed throughout the years and also means respect.

It was a big favour to ask of Mr Tele’a to show us his tattoos and we thank him very much. He put on a lava lava and showed us the tattoos he got.

On his back was a tattoo of a canoe. That was the one that really stood out. Mrs Tele’a asked  to stand up and point to where each tattoo where, and it was kind of difficult.

We thank Mr Tele’a for taking time off work and coming in and showing us what a Pe’a is. And We thank Mrs Tele’a for making this happen.

Throughout this time I have learnt a lot about a Tatau and what Pe’a truly means.