The 106-year-old Filipino tattooist keeping an ancient practice alive: ‘she’s the face of this tradition’
- Maria Oggay, also known as Apo Whang-Od, has made the remote mountain village of Buscalan a tourist magnet, famous at home and abroad
- The oldest traditional tattooist in the Philippines, she practices the ancient art of ‘batok’ – hand-tapping using lemon tree thorn and charcoal soot
Hunched over and sitting on a low pile of sacks outside her house in the remote village of Buscalan, Maria Oggay was oblivious of the buzz around her as dozens of excited visitors queued up to get inked.
Shrouded in mist, Buscalan sits on a ridge in the Cordillera mountain range and can be reached via a 12-hour drive from Manila, along zigzag roads that are prone to landslides.
The last part of the journey is made by foot as visitors trek for about one hour to the village, passing breathtaking views of rice terraces and lush mountains, through crisp, cool air.
At 106 years old, Whang-Od still practices the ancient art of batok – the technique of tattooing through hand-tapping using a lemon tree thorn and charcoal soot – that she learned as a teenager.
Through the decades, she has skilfully etched tribal designs onto the skins of thousands of people, including foreigners who make the pilgrimage to her village, promoting her culture.