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A festival of painted people
Source: Inquirer
Author: Vicente S. Labro
Date: 1999-07-29
 
THEY stomp, shuffle and swagger.

Sometimes, they gyrate, sway their

hips and flutter their arms. They all

dance with abandon to the rhythm of

the drums.



These painted young people are vying for the top prizes of the

Pintados Festival, held in Tacloban City every June 29 on the

eve of the fiesta. The merry event has been a crowd drawer for a

decade now.



But there is more to the Pintados Festival than just fun. It has a

touch of history, showcasing the way of life of the early

Warays--their work, rites and celebrations.



The natives were called pintados

because of the tattoos that cover their

bodies. This is how the festival got its

name.



Tattooing practices among the Warays

have evolved through the years. Once

symbols of courage and nobility, the

tattoos later became badges of shame

and terror and, very recently, fashion

statements.



A day after Ferdinand Magellan and his

men landed on the shore of Homonhon

Island on March 17, 1521, the first

natives they saw wore tattoos. They

again met painted men on Limasawa Island 10 days later.



Tattooing is part of the rich Visayas culture, particularly those

of Leyte and Samar. The young men and women had their first

tattoos as part of the rites of passage. They added exquisitely

designed markings on the face and body to enhance their

beauty.



Pintados warriors had tattoos as a sort of war records. New

tattoos were added to mark every victorious battle; the more

''war medals'' they had on their skin, the more they were looked

up to in society.



Tribal chiefs had dialect tattoos as emblems of nobility.



All these, however, changed in the 17th century. The Spanish

friars forced the natives to abandon their old religious belief.

They banned the use of tattoos, branding the practice as

savage and evil.



Badges of ignominy



The practice of tattooing resurfaced in the middle of this

century, not in Leyte but in a place where wicked men were kept.

Hardened criminals in the national penitentiary started to sport

tattoos, and they had balisong pisaw and darts as weapons

instead of the Pintado warriors' sundang.



Tattoos, once symbols of courage and honor, then became

badges of ignominy.



The elegant body markings were replaced by tattoos of agila,

cobra, pierced hearts and other figures. The inmates also bore

special marks as gang members of the ''OXO'' ''Sigue-sigue''

''Sputnik,'' ''BCJ'' (Batang City Jail) and ''BSL'' (Batang

Samar-Leyte).



Tattoos became markang rehas or imprints of those who had

served time in prison.



About a decade ago, though, tattooing began to be regarded as

a form of body art, particularly in the West. It soon caught the

fancy of young people in big cities like Metro Manila.



Tattoos are now in color. As a fad, the markings are of different

colors and designs--angels, flowers, small animals, etc. These

are often found around the wrist and on the buttock, face,

breast, thigh or ankle.



Vogue



Tattoos are made by puncturing the design on the skin and

filling the punctures with indelible ink. Sometimes, the process

takes hours, depending on the design.



Among the early people who practiced tattooing were the

Egyptians. The art was also noted in India, Japan, China and

Southeast Asia. Later, it became in vogue in Europe and other

Western countries.



The indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, the Maoris,

were able to develop the art of colored tattooing. They were

able to preserve their tradition of body tattooing, unlike the

people of Eastern Visayas whose pintados of today use only

water-based paint in drawing the tattoos.



But still, the Pintados Festival never fails to lure thousands of

people to take a glimpse of a glorious past and join in the fun in

Tacloban.
 

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