Rapa Nui (Easter Island) · Eastern Polynesia

Rapa Nui tattoos

Tatu

The most easterly Polynesian tattoo tradition, Rapa Nui tatu shared design language with body painting (takona) and with the island's famed rongorongo glyphs.

Tradition · Rapa Nui tatu & takona (body painting)

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History

Devastated by 19th-century slave raids, disease and forced conversion, the Rapa Nui population collapsed and the living lineage of tatu ended. Since the 1990s, artists including Mokomae have reconstructed the tradition from ethnographic drawings and Rapa Nui elders, and tatu is now central to Tapati Rapa Nui festival culture.

Typical placements

Facial bands (retro-mai), backs, buttocks, forearms and full sleeves; historically paired with takona body painting for ceremony.

Signature motifs

Manutara — sooty-tern figure of the birdman cult
Make-make — creator-god face motif
Rongorongo — glyph-like linear scripts
Ao — ceremonial paddle silhouettes
Moai — stylized ancestor-statue profiles

Sources

Deeper history

How Rapa Nui tatu was documented

The primary written source for Rapa Nui tattooing is William J. Thomson's 1889 field report for the United States National Museum (Te Pito te Henua, or Easter Island, 1891). Thomson sketched the surviving elders' tattoo patterns — full-face bands, forehead marks, and body panels — before the last generation of traditionally tattooed Rapa Nui died. His plates, together with the earlier drawings of Katherine Routledge (1914–15) and the ethnographic notes of the Métraux expedition (1934), form almost the entire record of the pre-collapse tradition. Everything visible on the island today is a revival built from these pages, oral history from the island's remaining koro (elders), and shared Polynesian roots.

The collapse and the revival

Rapa Nui's population fell from roughly 3,000 in 1860 to just 111 by 1877 — after Peruvian slave raids and the smallpox and tuberculosis epidemics that followed the return of the survivors. The living lineage of tatu died with that generation. Cultural revival began seriously with the 1970s Rapa Nui movement and accelerated with the founding of the Tapati Rapa Nui festival in 1975, which built body-painting (takona) and tattoo revival into its competitions. Today artists including Mokomae and Rapa Nui Ink are re-establishing tatu as a living practice, cross-referencing the birdman-ritual iconography of Orongo and rongorongo-style line marks with the historical plates.

The visual grammar of Rapa Nui tatu

Rapa Nui tattooing shares Polynesian roots but reads distinctively: strong horizontal face bands, radiating patterns around the eyes, block motifs on the back and buttocks, and columnar arrangements along the forearms. The birdman-ritual iconography of the tangata manu — sooty terns, egg forms, the crescent Ao paddle — is central. Moai silhouettes and rongorongo-style rows are contemporary additions that make a piece unmistakably Rapa Nui rather than generically Polynesian.

Working with Rapa Nui motifs today

Rapa Nui-specific motifs — Makemake face-masks, tangata manu birdman figures, moai profiles — should be commissioned through a Rapa Nui or Rapa Nui-trained artist. The tradition is small, actively rebuilding, and community-sensitive. For non-Rapa Nui wearers, the birdman iconography carries specific ceremonial weight; ask which motifs are considered open.

Rapa Nui gallery4 photos

Wikimedia Commons imagery filtered to Rapa Nui.

Open the full gallery →

Designs Used In Tattooing, Drawn by Natives, The Mystery of Easter Island, published 1919 — Rapa Nui historical tattoo illustration by Unnamed Easter Islander — Designs Used In Tattooing, Drawn by Natives, The Mystery of Easter Island, published 1919
By Unnamed Easter Islander · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Tattooed or painted Rapa Nui man and woman (called "Te'ree") with trade items. Drawing by Captain Charles Bishop, 1795 — Rapa Nui historical tattoo illustration by Charles Bishop (1765?–1810) — Tattooed or painted Rapa Nui man and woman (called "Te'ree") with trade items. Drawing by Captain Charles Bishop, 1795
By Charles Bishop (1765?–1810) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Old Viriamo, back view by Walter Knoche, 1911 — Rapa Nui back tattoo by Walter Knoche — Old Viriamo, back view by Walter Knoche, 1911
By Walter Knoche · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Tattooing on native woman, Easter Island (1891) — Rapa Nui facial tattoo by William J. Thomson — Tattooing on native woman, Easter Island (1891)
By William J. Thomson · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Frequently asked questions

What is a Rapa Nui tattoo?+

The most easterly Polynesian tattoo tradition, Rapa Nui tatu shared design language with body painting (takona) and with the island's famed rongorongo glyphs. The tradition is known as Tatu and comes from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) · Eastern Polynesia.

What are the signature motifs of Rapa Nui tattoos?+

Signature Rapa Nui motifs include: Manutara — sooty-tern figure of the birdman cult; Make-make — creator-god face motif; Rongorongo — glyph-like linear scripts; Ao — ceremonial paddle silhouettes; Moai — stylized ancestor-statue profiles.

Where on the body are Rapa Nui tattoos traditionally placed?+

Facial bands (retro-mai), backs, buttocks, forearms and full sleeves; historically paired with takona body painting for ceremony.

Go deeper on Rapa Nui tattoos

Motif library →

See Rapa Nui motifs alongside symbols from every tradition.

Design glossary →

Rapa Nui vocabulary in context.

Placement guide →

How these designs sit on sleeves, chest, back and legs.

Artist directory →

Practitioners working in Rapa Nui tradition.

Meanings & symbols →

Long-form explainer covering every tradition.

Choosing an artist →

Consultation checklist and questions to ask.

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