10 points!! Is the art of hawaiian traditional tattoo legal in Hawaii or other states?
The bone needle and stick tapping to make a tattoo, is it legal in hawaii or any other states? Was it illegal at some point? Got any links on the topic of legality past and present? I need links!!
I don’t think that they use bone anymore because of the fact that it can’t be sterilized. Some places might still use bone, but I’m sure that more mainstream artists use metal combs now. In Hawaii, the tattoos are legal. I’m not sure about the other Polynesian countries or the legal history with the tattoos. Since the tattoos are a tribal characteristic, I’m going to assume that the government, aside from sanitary laws possibly, never regulated tribal tattoos. I do know that Western missionaries in Polynesia frowned upon tattoo, but whether or not they went so far as to make it illegal is beyond me.
Here are some links that might help you with your research.
http://www.tahititatou.com/history.html
http://www.pbs.org/skinstories/history/index.html
http://tattoobody.org/index.php?page=polynesia-tattoo-history
go on wiki.
i’m sure it’s legal
I’m guessing it’s legal because a co-worker had that procedure done when he was visiting hawaii.
no legit shop in the state would probably be able to get a business license or get their health dept certification using bone instruments. as all items need to be sterilized before using. an autoclave would probably boil a bone tool and make it soft.
Not that it would stop a private artist from doing this on the outside.
I only know of one artist that is well known that does this. He is from Tahiti, but makes trips to the Big Island every so often. His tools are made from wild bore tusks. It is fully legal. As a true traditional tattoo is very expensive ($1k) I’m currently saving up for mine. Check out his website.