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Samoan Material Culture

Figure 332.—Tattooing, back designs drawn by the young tattooing artist, Faioso

Figure 332.—Tattooing, back designs drawn by the young tattooing artist, Faioso.

Figure 332.—Tattooing, back designs drawn by the young tattooing artist, Faioso.

The base line (1) is serrated and between it and the canoe (2), tern, caterpillar, and bent knee motifs are introduced. The pula tele (3) is enhanced with fa'aila and with the fa'alaupaongo triangles forming saw tooth edges. The pula tama is hardly recognizable and between it and the pula tele, the large centipede and tern motifs are introduced. The centipede (4) also separates the two arms of the pula tele in the middle line. The first (5) and second (6) tafani bands are enhanced with two fa'aila and the inner end of the second tafani is made with large alternating triangles that form the large caterpillar (anufe) motif between. The caterpillar motif (7) is so outstanding that the tafani is termed tafani fa'aanufe. The first saemutu (8) dark band is made in two parts in such a way as to form two pairs of lozenge shaped fa'aila with a clear line bisecting the band. The two succeeding saemutu (9, 10) are fairly narrow plain bands but the spaces above, between and below are filled in with various motifs which have replaced the parallel plain lines of the older designs. The last saemutu (11) has 3 oblique fa'aila and the talitu (12) ends in 2 thin lines with large fa'alaupaongo points projecting downwards towards the 4 fa'aila below it.