A woman from the Atayal tribe in the east has had an elaborate tattoo ingrained on her face, marking the first time an Aboriginal woman in Taiwan has had her face tattooed in nearly a century.
The 33-year-old woman, Shayun Foudu, had the shape of a large "V" tattooed on her face during the weekend at a tourist resort in Taroko National Park in Hualien County.
"Facial tattooing is an old cultural tradition of the Atayal tribe. I feel very proud to have a tattoo on my face," Shayun Foudu told reporters.
PHOTO: CNA
Japanese colonial rulers banned the traditional custom 95 years ago, but the government does not outlaw the practice today. The custom of tattooing faces is believed to date back about 1,400 years and was practiced by several of the nation's Aboriginal tribes.
Foudu said that traditionally, Atayal women would have their faces tattooed after their first period. When a young Atayal man was marrying his young bride, the man would also have his face tattooed as a propitious sign of the couple's wish to have a long-lasting marriage, she said.
Foudu, a native of Fuhsing Township (
The tattoo artist used modern tattooing techniques to put the pigments on Foudu's face. The process took two hours. In old days, tattooing was done with needles, with ashes applied to the wounds, in a painful process.
Facial tattooing had also been a tradition of other indigenous groups, including the Amis, but Atayal tattoos are especially well-known, partly because it was widely practiced and the tattoos covered practically the entire face.
Specialists say the practice was used for several purposes, including as a way for Atayal ancestors to identify and protect later generations. Tattoos also served as marks of honor for men who were skilled in headhunting, while in women they represented the attainment of skills such as weaving.
The tradition is rapidly disappearing, however, and some Atayals are trying to record the history of face tattooing before the older generation dies.
Foudu said she hopes her and her husband's actions will help society adopt an open mind about facial tattoos.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS