#polynesia

[vintagegeekculture]

[folkfashion]

Hawaiian dancer's attire, Hawai'i, by Dino Morrow

[irawhiti]

man i'm so sick of seeing clone ocs or whatever with tā moko. please stop drawing tā moko on your characters if you aren't māori. i promise your māori character can have a deep connection to their culture without having tā moko done and you are not going to draw it correctly if you don't know what everything MEANS. each individual line has meaning to māori and at best you'll get the individual designs right but won't understand the meaning behind them so you've created a meaningless moko and, much more likely, you'll just butcher an incredibly sacred art.

i'd say to pay for a tohunga tā moko (moko artist) for a design if you literally cannot keep your hands off of it but in reality? please don't. you still have to draw the moko every single time and you are gonna mess it up. ESPECIALLY FACE MOKO. THOSE ARE SO SACRED STOP DRAWING THEM

i have a set design for my character's moko that i essentially take hours setting up to trace every time i draw ia and even my character having tā moko is iffy culturally as a tohunga tā moko didn't create it! it's one thing to simply create kōwhaiwhai, it's another altogether to depict tā moko. i plan to pay a moko artist to design moko for my oc eventually as well.

just, don't please? it's contentious and you are going to mess it up and look stupid at best.

(and DON'T trace an existing moko. that's even worse. tā moko is unique to the individual with the moko and you essentially just copied someone's identity and family line onto your oc for an aesthetic design)

[tinyuglyworld]

Maori women, Aotearoa, 1890-1910

[sinatraaloof]

[vulturesouls]

Portrait of a Tongan woman, 1890.

British Museum

[climbhighsleeplow]

Sand Walking - Vava'u Islands, Tonga

[divinum-pacis]

Illona Ilae, of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, leaves an offering in front an alter below the Mauna Loa volcano as it erupts Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022, near Hilo, Hawaii. Glowing lava from the world's largest volcano is a sight to behold, but for many Native Hawaiians, Mauna Loa's eruption is a time to pray, make offerings and honor both the natural and spiritual worlds. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)