Tinglayan students get formal instruction on doing traditional tattoo

Tinglayan, Kalinga – Ensuring that tradition lives through the next generation, a unique strand for traditional tattooing is being offered to high school learners in Tinglayan.

Among the things Tinglayan is known for is its hand-tapping tattoo practice. In fact, it is where we can find the multi-awarded and oldest ‘mambabatok’ in the Philippines, Apo Whang-od.

For the yKalingas, the tradition of getting inked is a sign of power, strength, dominance, and masculinity for men while it indicates beauty for women.

As mentioned by Silverio Tawatao, senior high school focal person, the hand-tapping tattoo strand was opened at the Southern Tinglayan National High School through the Indigenous Peoples Education (IPED) program of the Schools Division Office(SDO) Kalinga.

He elaborated that the initiative was ‘anchored on the principle that curricular offerings should be culturally appropriate to fit the context and local needs of our IP learners’.

Currently, there are around 50 senior high school learners enrolled in the traditional tattooing strand.

“So we hope then that this will continue to prosper so that we’ll be able to continue providing education to our IP learners that is culturally appropriate to their needs and the aspirations of our IP communities,” Tawatao conveyed.

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