Whang-od

Whang-od Oggay ( First name pronunciation: ; born February 17, 1917), also known as Maria Oggay, is a tattoo artist from the village of Buscalan within Tinglayan, Kalinga, Philippines.

She is often described as the "last" and oldest mambabatok (traditional Kalinga tattooist) and is part of the Butbut people of the larger Kalinga ethnic group.

At the age of 15, she began tattooing Butbut headhunters and women.

Butbut warriors traditionally earned tattoos from deeds in combat.

With the end of tribal warfare in the region, Whang-od continues to practice traditional tattooing on tourists visiting Buscalan.

Unlike the majority of Filipinos, she does not speak Tagalog or English.

She only communicates in Kalinga, her native language, and Ilocano, a lingua franca of Northern Luzon.

In April 2023, 106-year-old Whang-od appeared on the cover of Vogue Philippines' Beauty Issue, making her the oldest person to ever be on the cover of Vogue.

Fi-ing was last practiced in 1972.

Though headhunters no longer exist, Whang-od still applies the tattoos on Buscalan tourists.

She however no longer chants when tattooing tourists, as the chants are only for the beautification of Kalinga women and for the celebration of Kalinga men's victory in battle.

Some of her notable customers include Rhian Ramos, Drew Arellano, Liza Diño and Ice Seguerra.

Her early tattoo works did not earn her any income but due to the influx of tourists in her town, she was earning at least Php 5,000 a day for her tattooing in 2015.

She accepts around twenty to thirty customers every day.

She only does simple tattoos nowadays due to her advanced age.

Her apprentices, all women, have continued the tradition for her and their people.

The tattoo ink she uses is composed of indigenous materials, usually a mixture of charcoal and water that is tapped into the skin using a thorn from a calamansi or pomelo tree.

This ancient technique of batok dates back a thousand years and is relatively painful compared to conventional techniques.

She was nominated for the National Living Treasures Award (Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan) in 2017.

Her nomination is still being processed by the NCCA.

Whang-od started tattooing at the age of 15, a traditional artform that she learned from her father who was considered a master tattooist in the region.

Traditionally, only men with special tattooing ancestry were allowed to learn the art.

Whang-od was an exception due to her talent and potential seen by her father.

In later life, Whang-od's chosen apprentices constituted of only women, breaking the patrimonial tradition for the first time in recorded Kalinga history.

Despite breaking tradition, her community accepted her decision.

She has been doing the batok, the traditional hand-tapped tattooing, on male headhunters who earned the tattoos by protecting villages or killing enemies.

She also tattoos women of the Butbut people in Buscalan, Kalinga, primarily for aesthetic purposes.

As a traditional Kalinga tattooist or mambabatok, she has done fortune telling and chants while doing tattoos.

Every design she creates contains symbolic meanings specific to the mambabatok culture.

For example, a warrior who had killed an enemy would be given an eagle tattoo upon his return from battle.

She was first tattooed as a teenager with the designs consisting of a ladder and a python.

The python tattoo was especially important in her people's sacred stories.

According to their indigenous religion, the python scale tattoo was first given to Lagkunawa, a beautiful noblewoman from the village of Tinglayan (Whang-od's home village).

It was a gift from the hero-god Banna, who fell in love with the mortal.

Ever since, the tattoo was passed on through the generations.

Fatok is the term used for tattooing women to show beauty and wealth.

When a woman's arm is tattooed just like Whang-od's own tattoos, the family of the woman is obliged to pay the tattoo artist a Piglet or a bundle of harvested rice (locally called as dalan).

On the other hand, fi-ing is the term used for tattooing of male Butbut warriors on their chests and arms.

Whang-od used to practice fi-ing until headhunting was discouraged by the government.

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) conferred on Whang-od the prestigious Dangal ng Haraya Award at Tabuk, the capital of Whang-od's ethnic province of Kalinga, in 2018.