- SYMBOL -
Kea: (Marquesan) f. turtle.
'ea in Hawaiian, honu in Tahitian and Maori language, is a symbol of longevity, family, prosperity, protection, and of a navigator.
- SYMBOL -
Kea: (Marquesan) f. turtle.
'ea in Hawaiian, honu in Tahitian and Maori language, is a symbol of longevity, family, prosperity, protection, and of a navigator.
Turtles are a very important presence in the life and lore of Polynesian people.
They possess some peculiar traits that make them unique: their hard shell protects them from predators, and thousands of their eggs will disclose simultaneously on the same night, giving the newborn greater chances to reach to the water despite predators awaiting for them.
On this account they are sometimes regarded as a symbol of fertility and life.
They can swim very long distances crossing the oceans, and yet some species will swim back to the exact shore where they were born, in order to lay their eggs.
These seafaring habilities earned them the title of skillful navigators, a meaning they often symbolize in tattoos.
Turtles are a symbol of prosperity too, as their shell was used to craft sveral useful items, like tattoo needles and fish hooks:
They are considered sacred by many Polynesian people, and often regarded as incarnations of gods or aumakua (ancestors who protect their family by coming back in the shape of an animal typically).
In Marquesan tattooing one way to represent the turtle is to join two etua (divinities) symbols:
Von den Steinen refers in his "Die Marquesaner und ihre Kunst" that the same symbol appears to be regarded as a god when found on the male body, and as a turtle on the female body (possibly due to its dual meaning of protection/fertility).
Alfred Gell in his "ART AND AGENCY - An anthropological theory" speculates how the same symbol can be considered as a god if thought in the vertical plane, and a turtle if thought in the horizontal plane:
Symbols for the turtle go from very complex designs to simpler repetitive motifs that mimic the pattern of the shell:
- VARIANTS -
- USAGE SAMPLES -
Turtle motif added to symbolize protection on voyages and family:
A complex turtle motif with an added stylized sunmoon on the shell:
Tahitian style turtle tattoo made of several different elements joined together:
Three turtles representing family members:
You can click on the photos to read the full description of each tattoo.
