On the cover of Vogue at 107: it’s Apo Whang-Od, the sacred tattoo artist

Apo Whang-Od has been drawing hand tattoos on the skin since adolescence with a thorn dipped in soot. She has been the custodian of rituals of sacred value since time immemorial. And it is as if that magic that she has given to hundreds of epidermis – including hers – was protecting her from the passage of time, which caresses her lightly, leaving her a twenty-year-old smile and also her soul of her kind of her. Apo Whang-Od is a hieratic character and at 103 she has also become an icon for the Western world to the point that «Vogue» has decided to dedicate that cover normally occupied by actresses, VIPs and supermodels to her.

“Reaching the remote village of Buscalan, home to the famous last mambabatok (tattoo artist) of her generation, has never been easier. Of course, we still have to face the 12-hour journey from Manila, with its sprawling traffic, the winding mountain roads of the cordillera, avoiding the debris of landslides and trucks which, traveling in the opposite direction, suddenly emerge from the fog. But the path starting from the fork in Tinglayan municipality, Kalinga – clearly marked by a sign announcing: “Welcome! Whang-Od Buscalan Tattoo Village” – is now paved, which cuts the journey time by over an hour. What remains is a strenuous climb through terraced rice fields that a reasonably fit person can tackle in about forty minutes.’ Thus begins the long article that «Vogue» dedicates to her. A very long service that tells the story of the pristine world that surrounds Apo Whang-Od, so immune to modern “comforts”: cell phones are not accepted over there and only a small number of residents have wifi.

Apo Whang-Od is also known as «Maria Oggay» and has been doing hand tattoos on the skin since her teens. But only in the last fifteen years has her clientele and her fame extended beyond the Cordillera region, attracting thousands of visitors from all over the world, in search of the “exquisite pain inflicted by the thorn dipped in soot”. She was 16 when she began her career as a tattoo artist under the guidance of her father. The first and only female mambabatok of her time, Whang-Od traveled to villages near and far, called upon by local communities to imprint the sacred symbols of ancestors on individuals who had crossed or were about to cross a threshold in their lives.

“I’ve tattooed more women than warriors, since the practice of headhunting was banned by the Americans in the early 1900s. Back then, non-tattooed women were considered imperfect, undesirable,” she says. But as American Catholic missionaries arrived in Kaling and built their schools there, village girls were forced to cover their arms in long-sleeved garments. Being tattooed became a source of shame for women who ventured into the city.

In the world today, tattooing is not only no longer a source of shame, but it is a strong trend even if it lacks religious meanings. Whang-Od was awarded the Dangal ng Haraya award in 2018, and the meritorious campaign to elevate her to National Living Heritage or even National Artist is still ongoing.