Two Kelinge (Kayan
Tattoo Stencils)

It is not only objects, of course, that are ascribed magical or ritual power; very often, the products of objects are the primary locus of protection or threat on the spiritual level. Tattoo (tedek) was until relatively recently universal among Kayan women, and is still common. The patterns were designed to serve as guides after death, leading women through the darkness of the afterlife to the longhouse of their dead ancestors. Women also performed the tattooing, and it was women who were the experts on the significance and quality of the tattoo designs, though the men actually carved the stencils on wooden blocks. The office of tattooist was a hereditary position and the artist, like blacksmiths and carvers, worked under the protection of a tutelary spirit who was propitiated with sacrifices before each tattoo session.

Most traditionalist Kayan tattooists were restricted by taboos specific to their art. Any personal or social situation leading to the actual of figurative release of blood—having young children, the presence of unburied dead, the riceseeding time—made the tattooing process too ritually dangerous to be attempted. Ominous dreams, such as those of floods that foretold bloodletting, would also interrupt the work. Tattooists were also forbidden from eating certain foods such as raw or bloody meat or fish for similar reasons. If an artist disregarded any of these prohibitions, the designs that she tattooed might not appear clearly in her clients’ afterlives, and she herself would sicken and die. Women occasionally became tattoo artists in order to themselves be cured of particular illnesses, since Bua Kalung, the tutelary spirit of tattoo artists, protected them from disease-bearing spirits.

Though other tools and techniques for tattooing have become widespread, the tools formerly used by tattooists were fairly simple, consisting of two or three thorn needles (ulang or ulang brang) and an iron striker (tukun or pepak) kept in a wooden case. The needles were wooden rods with a short pointed head projecting at right angles at one end. Attached to the point of the head was a lump of resin embedded with three or four short needles, with only their points protruding. The striker was a short ironwood rod. The pigment was a mixture of soot, water, and sugarcane juice kept in a shallow wooden cup. It was believed that the best soot was obtained from the bottom of a metal cooking pot, but soot derived from burning resin was also used. The tattoo designs were carved in relief on blocks of wood (kelinge) such as these which were smeared with the ink and then pressed on the part to be tattooed, leaving an impression of the designs. 

All preparations made, the client would lie on the floor, the artist and an assistant squatting on either side of her. The tattooist first dipped a piece of sugar palm fiber into the pigment and, pressing this onto the limb to be tattooed, plotted out the arrangement of the rows or bands of the design. Along these straight lines the artist tattooed the rows of lines (ikor) then, taking the tattoo block carved with the required design, smeared it with pigment and pressed it onto the limb between two rows of ikor. The tattooist or her assistant used her feet to stretch the client’s skin to achieve evenness of application, dipped a needle into the pigment, and tapped its handle with the striker as she worked along a line, driving the needle points into the skin.

Wood; 43.5 x 4cm.  |   Wood; 6 x 21cm.

Nelson South East Asia Collection © 2025