{
 "type": "ink",
 "count": 9,
 "nodes": [
  {
   "schema": 1,
   "id": "awheto-ngarehu",
   "type": "ink",
   "names": {
    "name": "Awheto and ngarehu",
    "local": "awheto",
    "local_lang": "Māori",
    "said": "Caterpillar fungus for the body, burnt timber for the face"
   },
   "region": [
    "oceania"
   ],
   "facets": {
    "colour": "black"
   },
   "text": {
    "what": "Two pigments for two jobs: *awheto*, a caterpillar fungus, for the body; *ngarehu*, burnt timber, for the darker face colour.",
    "story": "Soot from burnt kauri gum, mixed with fat, was used as well. The pigment was kept in carved *oko* vessels, buried between uses and handed on."
   },
   "kin": [
    {
     "to": "ta-moko",
     "as": "Where it goes.",
     "rel": "tradition"
    }
   ],
   "sources": [
    "s:wp-t-moko"
   ],
   "provenance": {
    "default": {
     "tier": "cited",
     "source": "s:wp-t-moko"
    }
   },
   "confidence": "high",
   "updated": "2026-09-19",
   "kin_in": []
  },
  {
   "schema": 1,
   "id": "indigo",
   "type": "ink",
   "names": {
    "name": "Indigo",
    "th": "คราม",
    "said": "The plant blue: Ainu mouths, Chin faces"
   },
   "region": [
    "east-asia",
    "mainland-southeast-asia"
   ],
   "facets": {
    "colour": "blue-black"
   },
   "text": {
    "what": "Pigment from the indigo plant, used by the Ainu and reported for the blue lines on Chin women's faces.",
    "story": "Ainu and Ryukyuan tattooing both use indigo rather than soot, in islands where indigo dyeing is also the textile tradition. The same plant, the same vats, a different surface."
   },
   "text_th": {
    "what": "สีจากต้นคราม ชาวไอนุใช้ และมีรายงานว่าเส้นสีน้ำเงินบนใบหน้าหญิงชาวชินก็ใช้"
   },
   "kin": [
    {
     "to": "ainu-anchi-piri",
     "as": "Where it goes.",
     "rel": "tradition"
    }
   ],
   "sources": [
    "s:wp-irezumi",
    "s:wp-ainu-people",
    "s:wp-indigo-dye",
    "s:wp-tattooing-in-myanmar"
   ],
   "provenance": {
    "default": {
     "tier": "cited",
     "source": "s:wp-irezumi"
    },
    "fields": {
     "text_th": {
      "tier": "inference",
      "note": "written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated"
     }
    }
   },
   "confidence": "medium",
   "updated": "2026-09-19",
   "kin_in": []
  },
  {
   "schema": 1,
   "id": "lampblack",
   "type": "ink",
   "names": {
    "name": "Lampblack",
    "th": "เขม่าตะเกียง",
    "said": "Soot off a burning oil lamp, the best from sesame oil"
   },
   "region": [
    "mainland-southeast-asia"
   ],
   "facets": {
    "colour": "blue-black"
   },
   "text": {
    "what": "Soot collected from a lamp, mixed with water as it is needed. Under the skin it reads blue-black, and it does not leave.",
    "story": "Shway Yoe names the grade: the best lampblack is the soot of burning sesame oil. The Burmese black recipe recorded on the Myanmar article is more elaborate — soot mixed with dried gallbladder of fish or cattle, powdered, boiled, simmered with bitter melon leaves and dried to a paste until wanted.\n\nThe two colours behaved differently and everyone noticed. Milne, on the Shan: tattooing in red sometimes fades, the blue appears to be indelible. Shway Yoe, on the Burmese: the blue dye from the lampblack never disappears, the vermilion gradually fades away.\n\n*Inference —* that difference decided what each colour was used for. Identity, manhood and the leg work went in black, for life. Charms went in red, and a charm that fades is a charm that can be renewed — which is a feature, not a fault."
   },
   "text_th": {
    "what": "เขม่าจากตะเกียง ผสมน้ำเมื่อจะใช้ ใต้ผิวหนังให้สีดำอมน้ำเงิน และไม่จางไป",
    "story": "เชวโยระบุเกรดไว้ เขม่าที่ดีที่สุดมาจากน้ำมันงาที่เผาไหม้ สูตรดำของพม่ายังผสมดีปลาหรือดีวัวตากแห้งป่น ต้ม เคี่ยวกับใบมะระ แล้วตากเป็นก้อนไว้ใช้\n\n*อนุมาน —* ความต่างของสองสีเป็นตัวกำหนดหน้าที่ ตัวตนและความเป็นชายลงด้วยสีดำ อยู่ตลอดชีวิต ส่วนเครื่องรางลงด้วยสีแดง และเครื่องรางที่จางได้คือเครื่องรางที่ต่ออายุได้"
   },
   "kin": [
    {
     "to": "vermilion",
     "as": "The other colour, and the one that fades on purpose.",
     "rel": "ink"
    },
    {
     "to": "htoe-kwin",
     "as": "What it drew.",
     "rel": "tradition"
    }
   ],
   "sources": [
    "s:shway-yoe",
    "s:wp-tattooing-in-myanmar",
    "s:milne-shans",
    "s:wp-soot"
   ],
   "provenance": {
    "default": {
     "tier": "cited",
     "source": "s:shway-yoe"
    },
    "fields": {
     "text_th": {
      "tier": "inference",
      "note": "written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated"
     }
    }
   },
   "confidence": "high",
   "tags": [
    "lanna"
   ],
   "updated": "2026-09-19",
   "kin_in": [
    {
     "from": "soot-water",
     "type": "ink",
     "name": "Soot and water",
     "as": "The refined version."
    },
    {
     "from": "vermilion",
     "type": "ink",
     "name": "Vermilion",
     "as": "The colour that stays."
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "schema": 1,
   "id": "nara-ink",
   "type": "ink",
   "names": {
    "name": "Nara ink",
    "local": "墨",
    "local_lang": "Japanese",
    "said": "The ink that goes grey-blue under skin"
   },
   "region": [
    "east-asia"
   ],
   "facets": {
    "colour": "blue-black"
   },
   "text": {
    "what": "The ink used in Japanese hand tattooing, which reads blue-grey under the skin rather than flat black.",
    "story": "It is the pigment the whole look depends on: the graded washes of a full back piece are a property of this ink worked at this angle."
   },
   "kin": [
    {
     "to": "irezumi",
     "as": "Where it goes.",
     "rel": "tradition"
    }
   ],
   "sources": [
    "s:wp-irezumi"
   ],
   "provenance": {
    "default": {
     "tier": "cited",
     "source": "s:wp-irezumi"
    }
   },
   "confidence": "medium",
   "updated": "2026-09-19",
   "kin_in": []
  },
  {
   "schema": 1,
   "id": "pen-ink",
   "type": "ink",
   "names": {
    "name": "Pen ink",
    "said": "What a kitchen tattoo is made of, and why professionals object"
   },
   "region": [
    "worldwide"
   ],
   "facets": {
    "colour": "blue-black"
   },
   "text": {
    "what": "Ballpoint ink, India ink or whatever is to hand — the modern improvised pigment.",
    "story": "It is not made to go into skin and it is the part of improvised tattooing that professionals raise first. Professional hand-poke uses tattoo ink and single-use needles; the method is the same, the supply chain is not."
   },
   "kin": [
    {
     "to": "stick-and-poke",
     "as": "Where it goes.",
     "rel": "tradition"
    }
   ],
   "sources": [
    "s:wp-stick-and-poke",
    "s:wp-tattoo-ink"
   ],
   "provenance": {
    "default": {
     "tier": "cited",
     "source": "s:wp-stick-and-poke"
    }
   },
   "confidence": "high",
   "updated": "2026-09-19",
   "kin_in": []
  },
  {
   "schema": 1,
   "id": "soot-honey",
   "type": "ink",
   "names": {
    "name": "Soot and honey",
    "local": "sicanje",
    "local_lang": "Croatian",
    "said": "The Bosnian mix"
   },
   "region": [
    "europe"
   ],
   "facets": {
    "colour": "blue-black"
   },
   "text": {
    "what": "Soot, honey and sometimes saliva, pricked in with a needle.",
    "story": "Recorded in the 1890s by the two men who wrote the practice down — a doctor and an archaeologist."
   },
   "kin": [
    {
     "to": "sicanje",
     "as": "Where it goes.",
     "rel": "tradition"
    }
   ],
   "sources": [
    "s:wp-sicanje"
   ],
   "provenance": {
    "default": {
     "tier": "cited",
     "source": "s:wp-sicanje"
    }
   },
   "confidence": "medium",
   "updated": "2026-09-19",
   "kin_in": [
    {
     "from": "soot-milk",
     "type": "ink",
     "name": "Soot and milk",
     "as": "The Bosnian equivalent."
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "schema": 1,
   "id": "soot-milk",
   "type": "ink",
   "names": {
    "name": "Soot and milk",
    "said": "Reported for deq: soot with breast milk"
   },
   "region": [
    "west-asia"
   ],
   "facets": {
    "colour": "blue-black"
   },
   "text": {
    "what": "Soot mixed with breast milk, reported as the Kurdish preparation.",
    "story": "*Inference —* the additive in every one of these recipes is something sticky and mildly antiseptic that the household already has: milk, honey, bile, fat, oil. The carbon does the marking; the liquid decides how it handles."
   },
   "kin": [
    {
     "to": "deq",
     "as": "Where it goes.",
     "rel": "tradition"
    },
    {
     "to": "soot-honey",
     "as": "The Bosnian equivalent.",
     "rel": "ink"
    }
   ],
   "sources": [
    "s:wp-deq-tattoo"
   ],
   "provenance": {
    "default": {
     "tier": "tradition"
    }
   },
   "confidence": "low",
   "needs_verification": true,
   "updated": "2026-09-19",
   "kin_in": []
  },
  {
   "schema": 1,
   "id": "soot-water",
   "type": "ink",
   "names": {
    "name": "Soot and water",
    "said": "The commonest ink on earth: something burnt, something wet"
   },
   "region": [
    "worldwide"
   ],
   "facets": {
    "colour": "black"
   },
   "text": {
    "what": "Ash or soot from a fire, ground and mixed with water, oil, plant juice or animal bile.",
    "story": "Across the whole map the base ingredient is carbon and the variable is the liquid. The Philippines: soot or ashes with water, oil, plant extracts like sugarcane juice, or pig bile. Kurdistan: soot with breast milk, reportedly. Bosnia: soot with honey, and sometimes saliva. Ötzi's marks were made from soot or fireplace ash.\n\n*Inference —* carbon is the pigment every human group already had. Any fire makes it, it does not fade, and the particle is large enough to stay where it is put. Nothing else available before industrial chemistry does all three."
   },
   "text_th": {
    "what": "ขี้เถ้าหรือเขม่าจากกองไฟ บดผสมน้ำ น้ำมัน น้ำจากพืช หรือดีสัตว์"
   },
   "kin": [
    {
     "to": "lampblack",
     "as": "The refined version.",
     "rel": "ink"
    },
    {
     "to": "otzi",
     "as": "The oldest example that has been analysed.",
     "rel": "find"
    }
   ],
   "sources": [
    "s:wp-batok",
    "s:wp-tzi",
    "s:wp-sicanje",
    "s:wp-deq-tattoo",
    "s:wp-carbon-black"
   ],
   "provenance": {
    "default": {
     "tier": "cited",
     "source": "s:wp-batok"
    },
    "fields": {
     "text_th": {
      "tier": "inference",
      "note": "written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated"
     }
    }
   },
   "confidence": "high",
   "tags": [
    "measured"
   ],
   "updated": "2026-09-19",
   "kin_in": [
    {
     "from": "otzi",
     "type": "find",
     "name": "Ötzi",
     "as": "What the pigment turned out to be."
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "schema": 1,
   "id": "vermilion",
   "type": "ink",
   "names": {
    "name": "Vermilion",
    "th": "ชาด",
    "said": "Red mercury sulphide, for charms, and it fades"
   },
   "region": [
    "mainland-southeast-asia"
   ],
   "facets": {
    "colour": "red"
   },
   "text": {
    "what": "Cinnabar red, diluted, mixed with herbs and other things, and used for charms rather than for the standing marks.",
    "story": "Shway Yoe: all the more important charms are reserved for other parts of the body and executed in vermilion. The *a-nu se*, the drug of tenderness, is vermilion mixed with herbs and the dried skin of the *tokay* gecko; a few dots in a triangle between the eyes are enough.\n\nIt fades — everybody says so — and a fading charm gets redone.\n\n*Attested —* the mercury in cinnabar is toxic. The sources this site quotes do not raise that, and it is not offered here as advice about anything; it is a fact about the pigment named in them."
   },
   "text_th": {
    "what": "สีแดงชาด เจือจาง ผสมสมุนไพรและของอื่น ใช้กับเครื่องราง ไม่ใช่กับลายประจำตัว",
    "story": "เชวโยเขียนว่า เครื่องรางสำคัญกว่านั้นสงวนไว้สำหรับส่วนอื่นของร่างกายและลงด้วยสีชาด และมันจางไป เครื่องรางที่จางก็ลงใหม่"
   },
   "kin": [
    {
     "to": "lampblack",
     "as": "The colour that stays.",
     "rel": "ink"
    }
   ],
   "sources": [
    "s:shway-yoe",
    "s:wp-cinnabar",
    "s:wp-vermilion",
    "s:wp-tattooing-in-myanmar"
   ],
   "provenance": {
    "default": {
     "tier": "cited",
     "source": "s:shway-yoe"
    },
    "fields": {
     "text_th": {
      "tier": "inference",
      "note": "written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated"
     }
    }
   },
   "confidence": "high",
   "tags": [
    "lanna",
    "protective"
   ],
   "updated": "2026-09-19",
   "kin_in": [
    {
     "from": "htoe-kwin",
     "type": "tradition",
     "name": "Htoe kwin",
     "as": "The other colour: charms, in red, which fade."
    },
    {
     "from": "lampblack",
     "type": "ink",
     "name": "Lampblack",
     "as": "The other colour, and the one that fades on purpose."
    }
   ]
  }
 ]
}