methodTap
ตอก
A comb set crosswise on a handle, struck by a second stick
What it is
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.
The long version
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.
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.
Connected to
- Poke The sibling method, and the one this site is named for.
- Batok Where it is still being done daily.
Named here by
- Batok The method, and why this site does not call it hand-poke.
- Iban tattooing The method.
- Poke The one it gets confused with, and the one that does the striking for you.
- Au The method.
- The Arku Cave tools The method.
- What counts as hand-poked Two.
Where each claim comes from
| Field | Tier | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| default | cited | Batok — Wikipedia (en) | |
| text_th | inference | written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated |
Sources
cited Cited — a named source, linked · harvested Harvested — fetched from an open dataset, with its licence · tradition Tradition — general knowledge of the tradition, hedged · inference Inference — this project's own reasoning from the above · field Field — someone stood there