traditionAtayal ptasan
ptasan · Squliq Atayal
Forehead for both; a man's chin when he fathers a child; a woman's cheeks when she can weave
| Where it goes | face, chin |
|---|---|
| Stopped by | banned by the Japanese colonial administration in 1930, for its link to headhunting |
| Notes | A qualification, not an ornament: the face says the skill has been demonstrated. |
| Ink | Soot and water |
| Years between | 1930–2026 (96) |
about 1,600 – 1,930 · Banned by the Japanese administration in 1930
24.2000, 121.2000 · OpenStreetMap
What it is
Taiwan: a band down the forehead, and a second mark earned — by a man for taking a head, by a woman for mastering the loom.
The long version
The rule was a gate. No face marks, no marriage; no face marks, no crossing to the ancestors at death. A girl learned to weave at ten or twelve and had to master it before her cheeks were marked, which makes the tattoo a certificate of competence held on the most visible surface a person has.
Japan banned it in 1930. Christianity finished the job. The marks are now on elderly faces and on the museum wall.
Connected to
- Chin facial tattooing Another face, another government, thirty years apart.
Named here by
- Chin facial tattooing And another, banned by another government in another decade.
- When it is done Stacked with fatherhood and with the loom.
- Japan outlaws it And who else again.
Where each claim comes from
| Field | Tier | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| default | cited | Atayal people — Wikipedia (en) | |
| text_th | inference | written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated |
Sources
- Atayal people — Wikipedia (en)
- Taiwanese indigenous peoples — Wikipedia (en)
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