Apo Whang-Od, aka Maria Oggay, just made history by gracing the cover of Vogue Philippines. The lovely image by Artu Nepomuceno appears on the cover of their April issue.
Oggay lives in the mountains 15 hours north of Manila. She is a mambabatok, a traditional tattoo artist of the Kalinga tribe, and she does it all with a pomelo thorn on a bamboo handle and coal for pigment. She is the last mambabatok of her peers, a craft which is only handed down to blood relatives.
Here’s a cool video of her working:
Oggay has passed the tradition onto her niece Grace Palicas, shown below.
She has no plans of stopping, either. Via NBC News:
“When visitors come from far away, I will give them the tatak Buscalan, tatak Kalinga for as long as my eyes can see.”
Image: Vogue Phillipines
