Ink twice: The Greenland women carving out a new future with Inuit facial tattoos

Andu Schiodt Pikilak has dark dashes on her forehead descending into a deep 'V' like geese flying in formation, an Inuit tattoo she sees as a rebirth for both her and Greenlandic culture.

"We're going back to our roots," said the reserved 61-year-old psychologist, who took the plunge seven years ago, before adding other tattoos to her forearm and fingers.

"The tattoos disappeared for many generations and have only recently returned," said Pikilak in Nuuk, capital of the Arctic island of Greenland.

The territory was a Danish colony from 1721 to 1953, before gradually becoming autonomous in the second half of the 20th century.

Inuit tattoos in Greenland - similar to those inked in other Inuit cultures, notably in Canada - are primarily worn by women. They were never formally banished but disappeared when Greenland was colonized. But for Pikilak "it's like they were always there."

Her friends and family applauded her choice and she has received few disapproving looks, she revealed.

For Eva Nielsen, the decision to get a traditional facial tattoo, called a "tuniit" - in her case 12 lines on her chin - was the fruit of a long personal reflection and a way of reappropriating her Inuit heritage.

"It's a symbol. I want to carry my culture within me," the 33-year-old said.

She grew up mainly in Denmark, with a Danish father and a Greenlandic mother. "It's not just a butterfly tattoo, it has real meaning. I was so happy when I looked in the mirror the first time," Nielsen added.

Tattooed mummies

The oldest known accounts of Greenlandic Inuit tattoos date back to the 15th century, thanks to mummies found in the town of Qilakitsoq.

Of the eight bodies discovered in 1972, found in excellent condition thanks to the cold and dry climate, five were women - all of whom bore facial tattoos.

"The tattoos are linked to family relations and your status in society at the time and what you were able to do," said Aviaaja Rosing Jakobsen, curator of the museum housing the mummies, herself tattooed.

Greenlanders have only recently begun rediscovering and reappropriating their cultural heritage.

"Growing up in Greenland in the post-colonial era, when we were a province of Denmark... the narrative was that the Inuit who came before us were different people from us," said Maya Sialuk Jacobsen, a professional tattoo artist in her 50s who splits her time between Nuuk and Denmark.

"It took me a while to understand that this wasn't true." Her interest in ritual tattoos was sparked a decade ago when she was put on bed rest after a shoulder operation.

She discovered they were traditional across the far north, from Siberia to Greenland, but their designs varied depending on the surroundings, hunting methods and local beliefs.

Female amulets

The practice, primarily for women, is "an amuletic form of tattooing", said Jacobsen. "The tattoos had a job to do."

The biggest taboos in Inuit culture were birth, menstruation and death. "A woman in her physicality alone is breaking taboos just by being... her amulets have the power to erase the taboos she's breaking," Jacobsen said.

"There are about 15 different amulets that are put together in various ways according to which tribe you are from and which type of hunting was done. There are as many patterns as there are women."

A needle made of animal bone is used to make the markings - the same kind of needle used for sewing - and as a result the designs are relatively simple, "dots and lines, basically," she added.

Greenlandic Inuits nowadays get traditional tattoos for their own personal and political reasons rather than for the community's benefit, which was the main reason in the past, she said.

"People are super-hungry to understand their culture and represent the culture."

She is having the tattoos on her forehead and chin removed, as they represent Canadian Inuit designs and not Greenlandic ones, something she was not aware of when she first developed an interest in the tradition.

Subscribe to Storyboard: A weekly newsletter bringing you the best of CGTN every Friday