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Halona, Inc., Kohala, Hawaii [Published date: 1996]. Softcover, xii, 60 pp; First edition. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs, drawings, historical reproductions, and tattoo motif diagrams; 25 cm. Inscribed (personalized) and signed with the nickname "Ski" (nickname of P. F. Kwiatkowski, not full name).
In very good condition. Illustrated paper covers have light bumping and creasing to edges and corners and light overall scuffing. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. An illustrated study of Hawaiian tattooing traditions with drawings by Hawaiian artist Tom O’o Mehau. The work combines anthropological history, Polynesian cultural context, and visual documentation of tattoo designs. Includes reproductions of early engravings and paintings (e.g., John Webber, Jacques Arago), photographs of ancient tattooing instruments from the Bishop Museum, artist renderings of mummified remains, and contemporary documentation of tattoo practice. Chapters trace the origins of tattooing in Polynesia, methods and terminology, symbolic geometric motifs, ancestral spirit associations ('aumakua), social meanings of tattoos (such as grief, shame, or warrior identity), and their cultural evolution. Contents include: A brief history of tattooing; Techniques and terminology; Tattoo designs and their relatives; Basic geometric designs; The 'aumakua; Flights of fancy, proof of grief, marks of shame; Evolution.