Batok vs Polynesian
Batok was influenced by Polynesian — shares the Austronesian geometric marking heritage.
Batok
Indigenous Filipino hand-tapped tattooing of bold black geometric and figurative motifs, famously revived by Kalinga artist Whang-od.
- Hand-tapped thorn-and-stick technique
- Solid black soot-based pigment
- Geometric ladders, lattices, and dash rows
- Figurative motifs (centipede, snake, eagle)
- Bold repeated patterns tied to status and protection
Polynesian
A broad Pacific tattooing tradition of solid black geometric bands built from repeated motifs encoding genealogy, status, and protection.
- Solid flat-black geometric bands
- Repeated enata (figure) and spearhead motifs
- Niho mano (shark-teeth) triangle rows
- Tiki faces and ocean-wave fillers
- Bands wrapping and following body contours
At a glance
| Batok | Polynesian | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Ancient–present | Ancient–present |
| Discipline | Tattoo | Tattoo |
| Region | Philippines, Cordillera (Kalinga) | Polynesia, Samoa, Tahiti, Marquesas, Hawaii |
| Family | Austronesian, Indigenous | Austronesian, Tribal |
| Formal traits | solid-black, hand-tapped, geometric, figurative-motifs, repeated-pattern | solid-black, geometric-bands, repeated-motifs, symmetrical, contour-following |
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