Missadventures

Fang-Od lives up high in the Cordillera Mountains of northern Luzon, Philippines, a beautiful 90 year old woman whose job description is ‘The Last Female Tattoo Artist of Kalinga’.

Fang-Od is the only living tattoo artist in Kalinga and with her, this indigenous tribal art continues to live on, albeit with bated breath awaiting its quite and heartbreaking demise.

Fang-Ud started the art of batok (tattooing) when she was 15 years old under her father’s tutelage. The rich tradition of batok in Kalinga used to be reserved for headhunting warriors.

The name Kalinga is said to come from the Ibanag “kali-nga” and the Gaddang “kalinga” ethnolinguistic group which both mean headhunters, a reference to the tradition of head taking and tribal war in this area.

Fang-Ud is the last person to tattoo headhunters in Kalinga as a bodong (peact pact) is now established to minimize, if not eliminate tradition warfare and headhunting. Fang-Ud has been practicing her craft for more than 70 years. She has remained single and bears no children. She lives in a cozy shack surrounded by mountains and trees.

Today, outsiders can graciously ask Fang-Ud for a tattoo. In order to get your skin inked by her, you have to take a 7 hour bus ride from Manila to Bontoc. Then from Bontoc you take a 2 hour jeep or bus ride to Butbut. The harrowing ravines, especially when you are riding top load, affords you a stunning view of Kalinga’s mountains and the great ranging Chico river.

From Butbut you then do a 2 hour hike to Buscalan, Fang-Ud’s home in the mountains. When getting your tattoo you not only become a canvass for this living art form, you also get to experience Buscalan hospitality. The arrangement for visiting Fang-Ud is that you get to stay with her, sleep at her humble abode and dine with the locals.

While tattoing is not an art form enjoyed by everyone, a visit to Kalinga, with its rolling hills and its welcoming people give us enough that magnificence is everywhere.