Tim Walker’s Double IV

Labour MP Nanaia Mahuta is proudly flaunting her newest tattoo – a traditional moko on her chin.

The question some will now be asking: ‘Does this mean the skull and crossbones on my neck, and the barbed wire around my right biceps, is also socially acceptable?’

Despite facial tattoos throughout time being associated with motorcycle gangs and/or thuggery, Mahuta is of the belief that the cultural significance of her facial tattoo renders it nonthreatening.

Whether a tattoo is of significance to the bearer or is just the result of an ill-conceived whim, the negative connotations that come with any kind of personal inking – let alone facial inking – are undeniable.

In this time of over-the-top political correctness and increasingly rigorous workplace regulations – particularly regarding Public Relations – it seems that if someone can show up to their place of employment on Monday with an inoffensive but visible ink-stain and be unquestionably removed from the premises, to then allow a Member of Parliament to show their face in public with any kind of – facial – tattoo, is a massive double standard.

Of course public outcry surrounding this potentially inflammable situation is at a minimum because – while there is no question that if Prime Minister John Key showed up in parliament in a week’s time with a rusty old sea-anchor tattooed to his left cheek emblazoned with the word ‘MOTHER’ as a sixteen year remembrance of his dear mum’s passing, that his sanity would be called into question and indeed he would likely lose his illustrious title – in fairness few White folk are truly certain how to behave when someone claiming to be of Maori heritage starts throwing around terms such as ‘iwi’, ‘hapu’, ‘whanau’, ‘tangi’, ‘tapu’, ‘tangata whenua’, ‘treaty’ or the big one, ‘cultural significance’.

This leads us to the inevitable conclusion cum double standard that the pastier ones skin the less acceptable the tattoo, because there is no way anyone can claim that any variety of facial tattoo is nonthreatening.

Facial tattoos are barbaric and while the bearer might well claim there is great significance behind the smudge, at a glance, they are still barbaric.

 

 

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Fey Shell-Tate

Photography by Murray Tate

 

 

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