Tonga, Fiji, the Cook Islands and Rapa Nui

Tonga. Tongan tātatau is attested in early accounts and in the archaeological record — some of the oldest tattoo combs in the Pacific come from Tonga — but it was suppressed after conversion in the nineteenth century, and King George Tupou I's laws made it an offence. For most of the twentieth century Tongans who wanted tattoos went to Samoan tufuga. A revival led by Tongan artists in New Zealand, Australia and the diaspora is reconstructing the practice from historic descriptions and Samoan technique, and a small number of practitioners now describe their work explicitly as Tongan.

Fiji. Fijian tattooing, veiqia, was practised on women, with marks on the body and around the mouth, and was documented by nineteenth-century visitors before disappearing under mission influence. The Veiqia Project, started in 2015 by a group of Fijian women artists and researchers, has studied museum collections and oral history to understand the practice; it is a research-led revival rather than a commercial style, and that distinction matters when "Fijian" designs are advertised.

Cook Islands. Tattooing was recorded across the Cooks, with distinctive work on Mangaia, Aitutaki and Rarotonga, and the same suppression followed in the 1800s. Contemporary Cook Islands tattooing revived from the 1990s, with studios in Rarotonga serving islanders and visitors; the Cook Islands tourism office publishes a guide to the practice and its practitioners.

Rapa Nui. Visitors in the 1770s and 1780s described extensive tattooing on Rapa Nui, and petroglyphs and barkcloth figures preserve motifs. The population collapse of the nineteenth century ended the living practice. A revival since the 1990s draws on those sources and on the wider Polynesian movement.

The common thread is that these revivals are young, deliberate and community-led. Where a design is sold as "Tongan", "Fijian", "Cook Islands" or "Rapa Nui", the honest question is which documented sources or practitioners it rests on.