Samoan tatau: the peʻa and the malu

Samoan tatau never stopped. While missionaries and colonial administrations suppressed tattooing across most of the Pacific in the nineteenth century, the Samoan practice continued, which is why it is the tradition most other revivals have looked to.

The men's tattoo is the peʻa. It covers the body from the waist to below the knees in dense bands and fields of black, and it is applied by a tufuga tā tatau — a master tattooist — over many sessions. The tufuga works with a set of ʻau (combs of different widths) and the sausau (mallet), assisted by stretchers who hold the skin. Receiving the peʻa is a serious undertaking: it is painful, it takes days or weeks, and it is bound up with obligations to family and to the tufuga. A man who stops before it is finished carries a visible, unfinished peʻa, which in Samoan terms is a mark of shame.

The women's tattoo is the malu. It runs from the upper thighs to behind the knees and is lighter and more open in its patterning, with the malu motif itself — a lozenge-like shape — placed behind the knee. The malu is traditionally associated with the taupou, the ceremonial daughter of a high chief, but it is received by many Samoan women today.

Tatau in Samoa is the work of particular families. The Suʻa and Tulouʻena families are the two principal lineages of tufuga tā tatau, and the title Suluʻape belongs to the Suʻa line. Suʻa Suluʻape Paulo II (1949–1999) took Samoan tatau to Europe, New Zealand and the United States and trained practitioners from other Pacific cultures, including Hawaiian and Māori artists; his brother Suʻa Suluʻape Alaivaʻa Petelo continued that teaching. In 2026 UNESCO approved preparatory assistance to help Samoa document tatau for a possible nomination to its lists of intangible cultural heritage.

Contemporary "Samoan style" machine work — the taulima (armband) and sleeve designs built from peʻa motifs — is widespread. It is distinct from the peʻa and malu themselves. Most practitioners of the tradition ask that the full peʻa and malu be reserved for those with a connection to Samoa, and that armbands and sleeves be understood as derived from, not equivalent to, the ceremonial forms.