Veiqia (), or Weniqia, is a female tattooing practice in Fiji. The term refers to both the practice and to the tattoos. Women or adolescent girls who have reached puberty may be tattooed in the groin and buttocks area by older female tattooing specialists called or . The practice was common prior to the arrival in the 1830s of Christian missionaries who discouraged it. The practice declined in the late nineteenth century, so that by 1908 to 1910, there was a single remaining tattooist recorded as being active; she was called Rabali. The practice was revived in the twenty-first century, led by the work of a collective of artists known as The Veiqia Project. Museum collections of veiqia artefacts are found in several Western museum collections, as well as the Fiji Museum.
In Fijian culture, the tattoos were considered to heighten a woman's beauty. Veiqia were seen as attractive and could be an important factor that enabled a woman to marry. If she died without them, they would be painted on her body after death so her spirit could proceed into the afterlife. Receiving veiqia was highly ritualised, with many regional variations. Preparation for the process could include abstinence from food or from sexual relations, or inducing vomiting to purge the body. The process of tattooing was closely associated with the gift of a young woman's first (fringed skirt) to wear once her veiqia was complete.
Special caves called were historically used for the ritual. Traditional medicines given to the young women varied from region to region and some were part of preparation for the ritual. To break the skin, some tools used included stingray spines, lemon thorns or shark teeth. Inks were made from Acacia richii or kauri pine. Motifs for tattoos included: turtles and wandering tattlers, pottery and basketwork. The tattooists, known as (also ) exchanged the service for (barkcloth), (polished sperm whale teeth) or .
Description
Veiqia (also referred to as weniqia) is a traditional form of tattooing that was exclusive to women in Fiji. The term can refer both to the practice and to the tattoos themselves. Kingsley Roth, a British colonial administrator, described in his 1933 publication that veiqia was marked onto young women's bodies at the time of puberty or sometimes at the onset of menstruation. The practice demonstrated that the women were available for marriage and had physically reached sexual maturity. Typically, young women would receive veiqia in the groin and on the buttocks. These areas would normally be covered by a (fringed skirt).
Veiqia practices varied regionally. Marking the pubic area was recorded from the village of Nabukeru, on the island of Yasawa. In the areas of Ba and Rewa, the veiqia was limited to only the area covered by a , whereas in the highlands of Viti Levu (the principal island) the veiqia extended to the hips, so the marks would be seen above and below the . The whole ritual was closely linked to puberty and coming of age and it was only after tattooing that young women were permitted to wear a . Designs were also made around women's mouths known as – but rather than marking transition out of puberty, they were made to mark subsequent stages in a woman's life, such as marriage or childbirth, although accounts of when it was performed contradict one another.
Motifs included in the tattoo designs were based on a range of patterns, reflecting the natural environment and culture. Notes made by Austrian anthropologist Anatole von Hügel describe the motifs in use in one specific region – Viti Levu Bay – in the mid-to-late-nineteenth century. There is no record of designs used in other regions. They included: stars, boats, turtles, ducks, wandering tattlers, pottery and basketwork, and leprosy marks, among others. They were similar to those printed onto Fijian barkcloth or incised onto decorated weapons, such as war clubs.
According to the Scottish writer Constance Gordon-Cumming, there were differences in patterns between coastal and inland communities, the patterns becoming more elaborate inland. The extent to which a woman was tattooed also varied: Gordon-Cumming reported that women at the coast only had "an exceedingly small display of tattooing", by which she meant the women had the least amount that was appropriate for their culture.
Ritual
The tattooists are called or . Historically they were older women, and their expertise in creating the tattoos was held in high regard in Fijian society. One of the last traditional dauveiqia was a woman named Rabali, who was tattooing women between 1908 and 1910. The young woman due to be tattooed had to give the in (tapa cloth), (polished sperm whale teeth) or for the service.Jenkinson, P. (2011). A whales’ tooth from Fiji , Jenkinson Antiques, pp. 9, 15, 34. Although there was usually one older woman applying the tattoos, other women might be present to hold the young woman still. The ways in which worked varied. For example, in the Wailevu river region, one specialist tattooed all the women, and she was a member of a named clan (the ). Beyond Wailevu it is not known if clan affiliation was important for all the practitioners, as this evidence is not recorded for other regions.
Preparations for veiqia varied among regions and were highly ritualised. No preparation was undertaken prior to tattooing by people living next to the Wainimala river, according to Kingsley Roth in 1933. In contrast, in Noiemalu district the pelvic areas due to be tattooed were rested for three days beforehand. This involved the young woman moving gently during her daily tasks, and lying with her legs raised to sleep. The skin was then massaged prior to marking. In another example, young women in Naboubuco who were to receive veiqia could not be menstruating and had to fast for 24 hours in advance of the procedure. During that fast, they also spent a night fishing for freshwater shrimp, which they ate to break their fast. They were also required to bring their own lemon thorns to make the tattooing implements. In Tailevu, young women had to rest for four days with their legs elevated, were given plant medicines made from the Rewa tree (Cerbera manghas) and a leafy green called Boro (Solanum viride) to make them purge, then given coconut milk. On the day of the ritual Tailevu young women were fed food to constipate them, such as yam. The tattoo practitioners also had to refrain from sexual relations for one day prior to their work.
The ritual of applying the tattoos was historically conducted in special caves called . At least one of these sites is still known at Yaro village on Kia Island. The process could take several weeks, or even months, since it was extremely painful and skin required time to heal between sessions. Pubic tattoos were made first, followed by the hips and buttocks. Tattoos were not made all at once, with work occurring across three days, followed by a rest for the skin to heal, then a return to the ritual depending on how quickly the skin adapted and how much pain the young woman could tolerate.
Most often, four days after the veiqia was complete, there was a ceremonial feast. This was sometimes known as 'the shedding of the scales' and was when the scabs over the tattoos would come off and reveal the designs. It was at this feast where the newly tattooed woman was presented with her first and it was paid for by the family of the man she intended to marry.
Implements
The implements used for showed regional variations. The tools could be shaped like a small adze and the blade was made from a lemon tree thorn. A (mallet) made from mbeta wood tapped the back of the , which punctured the skin. The handle for the was sometimes made from reed. In Lau, the (the local term for the ) was made from hibiscus wood; these mallets could also be made from stingray tail spines. Other materials used to puncture the skin included barracuda or shark teeth, or a sharp-toothed comb made from bone or turtle shell.
In the district of the Wainimala River on Viti Levu, the skin was punctured and ink made from the Acacia richii was then rubbed into the wound. This was in contrast to other methods, where a blade was dipped in the ink. In Rewasau, the ink was made from the soot of the kauri pine. An ink made from soot from burnt candlenuts was reserved for women of high social status. Ink was also blessed with prayers to the gods prior to the process. Some , such as Rabali, used soot to sketch designs on the bodies prior to beginning to tattoo.
Tools were usually used for one specific woman's veiqia. Afterwards, for women in Viti Levu for example, they were given to the subject's mother, who kept them with other special objects from the young woman's childhood – such as her umbilical cord. For women from Vanua Levu, the (cloth used to wipe away blood and excess ink) was kept and then taken out to sea as part of a fishing trip and then thrown in the water. This was followed by a blessing usually given by the young woman's grandmother.
For (mouth tattoos), an 1878 account on Viti Levu described how a woman's head was held still while lemon thorns fastened to a reed were used to incise either side of her mouth using an ink made from the gum of Agathis vitiensis. For some women in other areas of Fiji, such as Nagadi, women were tattooed all round their mouths, not just in the corners.
Cultural significance
In Fijian culture veiqia do not just symbolise a woman's maturity – whether at puberty, marriage or motherhood – but are also believed to enhance women's beauty. If a woman were to be untattooed, she would have been historically viewed by wider Fijian society as unusual, and might have been unable to find a husband. This view was described in 1908 by colonial administrator Basil Thomson who recorded comments by Vatureba (the chief of Nakasaleka on Viti Levu) that "the idea of marriage with an untattooed woman filled him with disgust". Vatureba also perceived women with tattoos as more sexually passionate. If a woman died who had not received veiqia, at burial her body was painted with the perceived missing designs so that she would not be punished in the afterlife.
The process of acquiring veiqia is painful, and the suffering the women underwent was important to the process. It was seen that toleration of the pain transformed the young women between life stages, and so were a source of pride for women. Both and might be altered at other stages of women's lives, such as childbirth – the length of the would also be extended. Young women from chiefly families received veiqia and at an older age than young women from a lower social status.
also had an impact outside Fiji: according to one Samoan tradition, it was two women from Fiji who travelled to Samoa, beginning the practice of . is another female tattooing practice, in which Samoan women are tattooed with geometric designs on the back of their legs from below the knee to the upper thighs. Legend states that the women were the conjoined twins, Taema and Tilafaiga, who were the daughters of Tokilagafanua, the shark-god, and his sister Hinatuafaga, the Moon. In another version recorded in 1969 by G. B.Milner in an article 'Siamese Twins, Birds and the Double Helix' Taema and Tilafaiga travelled to Fiji, where they learnt the art of tattooing from two men, Tufou and Filelei, who told them to "tattoo women, but not men". On the return journey the twins made a mistake and reversed the phrase, leading a tradition of male tattooing in Samoa, known as .
Missionaries, colonisation and decline