Tattoos are a sacred ancient practice for many cultures around the world, adopted as a form of identity, communication, or protection. For the Amazighs (Berbers), native people of North Africa, tattooing is an integral part of their tradition and society, in which women had the fundamental role of the customs’ preservation and transmission. Just as wall and craft patterns, tattoo patterns commemorate the different stages of people’s lives, as well as the life cycle and fertility of nature and men. The practice was preserved and transmitted from time immemorial, but it has been on an ongoing decline since the last century.
Tattooing is an ancient tradition practiced in cultures around the world. Historically, the tattooing aided nomadic Amazigh tribes in distinguishing members of different groups. Symbols within the tattoos served as a unifying force, deeply rooted in each group’s history and purpose. Beyond beautification, tattoos told the stories of tribes, tied women to their land, and conveyed familial ties.
Among the Amazigh communities in north Africa, women traditionally receive tattoos as a rite of passage, marking specific event such as marriage or puberty and maturity or just for beauty and protection. These Amazigh Tattoos in Morocco are often applied to the face, hands or other parts of the body.
Amazigh woman with traditional face tattoos
The Ancient Roots of Amazigh Tattoos
The origin of Amazigh tattooing is not certain, but it could have originated in the oldest evidence of the African rock art dating back to the Neolithic period, and more precisely, to the Capsian period (ca. 7500 - 4000 BC) found in North Africa, as mentioned by the prehistorian and expert of the Amazigh history, Gabriel Camps.
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« This preservation of the tradition is evidenced by the symbolic decorations in Berber art from 2000 years ago (Tiddis [in present-day Constantine, Algeria], Gastel [north of Tebessa, Algeria]), decorations still used by contemporary potters. » (J.B.
The earliest representations of the history of Amazigh tattoos were found in the Egyptian art of the Antique period. As a matter of fact, several remnants of ancient Egypt, dating back to one thousand years BC, show ancient Libyans with heavily decorated arms and legs with geometrical patterns remembering those of the Neolithic pottery, but it is hard to say if it is body painting or permanent tattoos (« Libyan » is the name given by the Greeks, the Egyptians and some Latin scholars of the Antique period to the population living in the North-West territory of the Nile River, known as « Libya »).
Ancient Egyptian depiction of Libyans with tattoos
The Amazighs, belonging to an oral tradition, did not leave any known writings about the practice of tattooing throughout history. In addition to the representations of ancient Egypt that provide valuable historical evidence, we had to wait for historical accounts, testimonials, and anthropological studies carried out during the European colonization of North Africa, during the 19th and 20th centuries AD, in order to find out more about the topic.
Meanings and Symbolism
Every tattoo design reveals a narrative, an unsaid autobiography permanently etched on the body. Berber tattoos are a live representation of the richness and depth of Berber culture, ranging from geometric designs signifying protection to symbols indicating a rite of passage. The symbols frequently change according to gender, tribe, and geographic affinities, creating a dynamic lexicon that captures the diversity of Berber groups.
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Tattoos were traditional or l-qayda (“custom”) and some motifs were rooted in the ancient Berber alphabet known as Tifinagh. The Tifinagh is a figurative alphabet derived from tools used in agriculture, sea products, and constellations. It is no longer written but continues to be spoken by some hill tribes today.
Oftentimes Berber tattoos were placed near body orifices (eyes, mouth, nose, navel, vagina) or surfaces believed to be vulnerable to the machinations of evil. For example, tattoos usually marked the feet to protect women from jnoun who attempted to enter the body through the earth. Other designs on the ankles, hands, and face were believed to protect individuals from the evil eye.
Many tattoo symbols have relationships with vegetation. The palm tree is a common facial tattoo, drawn as a straight line surrounded by dots that represent seeds. The tattoo correlates with the Carthaginian goddess Tanit, who is the fertility, war, and lunar goddess to the Amazigh people.
Other symbols were also used each with different meanings relating to protection from bad spirits or as tribal identifiers. The tattoos represent a belief that supernatural energy is found in all things.
The history of tattoos - Addison Anderson
The Role of Women
Berber women, as the center of the family’s sacred identity and guardians of the family’s honor and reputation, were situated within a sociomoral universe that affirmed their importance in everyday society. They were responsible for all magical practices intended to safeguard life (e.g., rites against the evil eye), and those designed to maintain the life of their children for which they were responsible - as well as the generative powers of which they are the bearers.
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In the early 20th century, the Rif Berber women of Morocco, among others, practiced tattooing as a prerequisite for marriage. When a girl was certain that she was to be married and when all arrangements for her wedding had been made, her family called in an old woman of the same awar, or sociological family, who was expert in the indelible art.
The markings, tattooed on Amazigh girls beginning at a young age, acted as a rite of passage. After an Amazigh girl was tattooed, she became a woman with the potential of motherhood. Tattoos followed Amazigh women throughout their lives.
The first facial tattoo is called the “siyala” and is placed on the chin for fertility. At an early age, women also applied tattoos to protect from death and disease. Along with important milestones, such as with the onset of puberty or for fertility, women received more tattoos. Later in life, if a woman’s social status changed, her tattoos would evolve with them. If a woman was widowed, she may have a tattoo from one ear to the other, symbolizing the beard of her dead husband.
Women have always played a leading role in the transmission of customs, ethics, and the learning of certain rites. By changing their status, by leaving home more frequently to access work and civic life, women have contributed to the gradual loss of ancestral customs and the simplification of rites.
Young Amazigh women with siyala tattoos
The Tattooing Procedure
The Amazigh tattooing procedure is a form of scarification of the body that involves superficially poking or cutting the skin according to the desired pattern. These patterns are usually first drawn on the skin with charcoal or soot using a wooden matchstick or the side of a needle. Afterwrads, the point of a needle or a Barbary fig thorn is burned for picketing, then the skin is pricked following the drawn patterns.
For the patterns to appear, the next step would be to rub the skin with a mixture of antimony (khol or tazult), lightly wet carbon black (soot) or gunpowder. The last step will strengthen the color blue / green of the patterns, and to do so, one needs to apply a paste (tizegzawt) made from a macerate of « bean leaves, sprouted wheat grains or black nightshade [tucanine].
The tattoo is usually performed by a professional who travels from village to village to practice their profession as tattoo artist, and they will be compensated with money or other goods agreed between the two parties. Also, a family or village member, usually an elderly woman, performs the tattoos. It is also not uncommon for some people to tattoo their own skin.
Decline and Resurgence
Despite its rich history and strong roots in Amazigh culture, tattooing practice in Morocco began to fade sometime around the 1960s. "It’s not someone that came and said, 'tattoos are bad'. This shift in attitude towards the tradition caused women to grow resentful towards their tattoos. What was once a mark of cultural pride, now left them riddled with guilt and shame. Over time, with fewer and fewer people getting tattoos, Moroccans started to forget the very tradition that was once a significant part of their identity.
Most Berbers have adopted the Islamic religion for over a millennium, so the practice of tattooing was reduced a long time ago because it’s against the ethics and Muslim orthodoxy as Islam forbids tattooing, even though it’s not mentioned in the Quran. Despite the prohibitions, the practice of tattooing lasted commonly until the 60s, and still nowadays is practiced in some areas where the culture is still conserved, especially in the desert and Atlas Mountains. In most areas however, henna is used as a non permanent alternative.
As a result of a new stigma due to the occupation of the French and the rise of Islam in Morocco, this practice is now quickly disappearing.
Over the last decade, tattooing has seen somewhat of a resurgence in Morocco. On top of this, many young people have also begun to show an interest in traditional forms of tattooing, with its popularity growing increasingly over the past few years. In late 2019, Jaouad opened Aswad Tattooing Club, a tattoo parlour dedicated solely to traditional North African Amazigh tattooing.
Amazigh tattoos are a dynamic and ever-evolving art form in addition to being a traditional means of expressing ethnic identity. These tattoos now have new meaning for people both inside and outside the Amazigh group, symbolizing empowerment, pride, and identity beyond their original cultural and spiritual functions. The renewed interest in Amazigh tattoos is indicative of a larger trend towards the celebration and preservation of culture, as well as a way to proclaim and reclaim one’s ethnic identity.
The tradition of tattooing connects the Amazigh people of Morocco to many communities of indigenous people worldwide who use tattooing as a form of expression, healing, and protection.
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