{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "who-holds-you",
 "type": "rite",
 "names": {
  "name": "Who holds you still",
  "said": "Two assistants in Samoa, a circle of friends among the Shan, other women in Fiji"
 },
 "region": [
  "worldwide"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "family": "tap"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "Nobody is tattooed alone. The room is part of the method.",
  "story": "Samoa: the *'au toso*, two assistants, stretch the skin and wipe. Fiji: one older woman applies the marks and others hold the young woman still. Burma: the tattooist's own left hand is the rest for the tool, flat against the body. Shan: the friends sit in a circle for days afterwards, because the itching is worse than the work.\n\n*Inference —* the skin has to be tight or the point wanders, which makes at least one extra pair of hands a technical requirement rather than a social one. The witnesses come free with it."
 },
 "text_th": {
  "what": "ไม่มีใครถูกสักคนเดียว ห้องนั้นเป็นส่วนหนึ่งของวิธี"
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "tatau",
   "as": "Where the assistants have a title.",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "veiqia",
   "as": "And where the holders are the other women.",
   "rel": "tradition"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-pe-a",
  "s:wp-veiqia",
  "s:shway-yoe",
  "s:milne-shans"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-pe-a"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text_th": {
    "tier": "inference",
    "note": "written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated"
   }
  }
 },
 "confidence": "high",
 "updated": "2026-09-19",
 "kin_in": []
}