Tattooist Murdered
Dateline: 11/26/99
Today, we say a sad good-bye to one of the great men of our times.
Samoan tattoo artist, more commonly known among his people as a tafuga, Paulo Suluape, has died according to the New Zealand Herald. He was found in his New Zealand home in Thursday morning, and it has been determined the death occured around midnight on Wednesday as a result of fatal wounds to the back of his head. Mr. Saluape was only 49 years old, and a woman is standing trial for his murder.
Mr. Suluape was a world-renowned artists, popular for the traditional Samoan tattoo designs known as p'ea (full body tattoo), which allow the wearer of these tattoos to tell the story, in a sense, of his "cultural identity". Usually done as part of a ritual ceremony, young men would receive these tattoos as their "right of passage" into manhood.
P'ea designs are not done with tattoo machines. Rather, they are done by hand with wooden tools with wide sections of needles at the ends that look like a comb. The width of these "combs" could vary from 10 needles wide up to sixty. A wooden mallet is then used to embed the ink into the skin.
Unfortunatley, there is not much on the internet about Mr. Suluape, but that does not make him any less-respected or well-known in the tattoo community. He was a respected member of his own New Zealand community, and will be missed, as will his talent.
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