{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "tap",
 "type": "method",
 "names": {
  "name": "Tap",
  "th": "ตอก",
  "said": "A comb set crosswise on a handle, struck by a second stick"
 },
 "region": [
  "worldwide"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "family": "tap"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "A needle or a comb of needles fixed at a right angle to a handle, and a second piece of wood striking the handle to drive it in.",
  "story": "This is the Austronesian method, and it runs from Taiwan through the Philippines and Borneo across the whole Pacific: Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, the Marquesas, Hawaii. The rate is about 90 to 120 taps a minute, which is a drum tempo, and the sound is what a tattooing session sounds like in half the traditions on this site.\n\n*Inference —* the hand that holds the comb does not push. It positions and holds the angle; the striking hand supplies the force. That division of labour is what lets a wide comb lay down a band of solid black at a speed no single point can match, and it is why the Pacific traditions cover so much more skin than the poking ones.",
  "notes": "This site keeps tapping separate from poking rather than folding both into \"hand-poked\". They are different tools, different rates and different results, and the traditions that use them know the difference."
 },
 "text_th": {
  "what": "เข็มหรือหวีเข็มติดตั้งฉากกับด้าม แล้วใช้ไม้อีกอันตอกด้ามให้เข็มลงผิว",
  "story": "นี่คือวิธีของตระกูลออสโตรนีเซียน ตั้งแต่ไต้หวัน ฟิลิปปินส์ บอร์เนียว ไปจนทั่วแปซิฟิก อัตราราว 90–120 ครั้งต่อนาที"
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "poke",
   "as": "The sibling method, and the one this site is named for.",
   "rel": "method"
  },
  {
   "to": "batok",
   "as": "Where it is still being done daily.",
   "rel": "tradition"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-batok",
  "s:wp-pe-a"
 ],
 "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": [
  "start-here"
 ],
 "updated": "2026-09-19",
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "batok",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Batok",
   "as": "The method, and why this site does not call it hand-poke."
  },
  {
   "from": "iban-borneo",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Iban tattooing",
   "as": "The method."
  },
  {
   "from": "poke",
   "type": "method",
   "name": "Poke",
   "as": "The one it gets confused with, and the one that does the striking for you."
  },
  {
   "from": "au",
   "type": "tool",
   "name": "Au",
   "as": "The method."
  },
  {
   "from": "arku-cave",
   "type": "find",
   "name": "The Arku Cave tools",
   "as": "The method."
  },
  {
   "from": "what-counts",
   "type": "issue",
   "name": "What counts as hand-poked",
   "as": "Two."
  }
 ]
}