Amazigh tattoo or berber tattoo, Beauty? History?

Amazigh tatto or berber tattoo “Amazigh tatouage” pain for beauty and the connection of the body with its mother land and earth….

Amazigh tattoo or berber tattoo in berber culture and traditions?

Amazigh Tattoo or berber tattoo among the Berbers were associated with wisdom, beauty, warm songs and grandmothers’ tales. They are not just ordinary drawings, but the memory of a whole history and a unique culture that spanned for centuries, and then gradually disappeared with the departure of mothers and grandmothers. It is a complete aesthetic identity on the way to extinction.

Who of the Berbers does not remember those beautiful green lines on the faces of beautiful grandmothers? The dazzling palms on the forehead, the shining stars on the cheeks, and the seductive dotted lines on the tip of nose, and all those tattoos that were associated in the memory of many Berbers with wisdom, beauty and wondrous tales. They are not ordinary graphic drawings, but the memory of their long history, which spanned for centuries, They are not just ordinary drawings, but the memory of a complete history and a unique culture, spanning centuries, and then gradually disappearing with the departure of mothers and grandmothers, decorative drawings that give the faces and bodies of Amazigh women incomparable beauty, befitting their sharp eyes, their unique redness and their beauty.There in the various Berber regions of North Africa; where nature, mountains and even the desert, the Amazigh people reproduce nature on his body through tattoos, to turn the tattoo from an adornment to a memory for the body, and from mere drawings to a carrier of strong and multiple connotations.

The history of tattooing in the Amazigh or Berber?

The practice of tattooing is one of the oldest rituals in the Amazigh culture, as its origins go back to the pre-Islamic period, and women heavily decorated their faces and bodies, as did men, but to a lesser extent compared to women.

Men’s tottoo in Amazigh culture?

The history of tattooing in the Berbers extends over centuries, as the origin of this custom in men goes back to very ancient times; there are some carvings in Egypt representing the 19th dynasty of Libyan kings, which show clear tattoos on the hands of men. In this context, Mustapha Kadri, a Moroccan specialist in anthropology and interest in Amazigh culture, confirms that. The custom of tattooing among men continued until the middle of the twentieth century, only to disappear after that for various reasons, but there are some Berber areas that have preserved them until now, where men still put A point in the nose. The aim is to express tribal affiliation, and all this before this practice, which has been an important part of the Amazigh culture for many years, began to gradually disappear starting in 1970, according to an estimates of specialists in sociology and anthropology.

wemen’s tottoo in Amazigh culture?

The Amazigh woman leaves her mark on everything that falls into her hands, even her body, which she tried to add some spices to and give it an artistic touch and a high aesthetic sense. She was creative in decorating it with symbols, shapes and lines, through which she was able to create her own distinct ethnographic framework. These tattoos carried signs and functions that differed in different times, so they moved from a symbol of beauty, closeness to God, defining belonging and being a cultural and social memory, to become at the present time a lump in her heart trying to remove it in various ways.Tattoos in Amazigh culture in general can be included within the theory of spatial communication when “Edward Thomas Hall”, who considers the symbols, carried by the body a substantive space that provides a cultural significance added to the individual’s balance as an object within the group.All the symbols that the Amazigh woman has mastered in her drawing reveal the underlying mechanisms of the sensory worlds that the body produces in its interaction with its surroundings. It is considered non-verbal behaviors that reveal what is hidden in that spirit, and a social law inherent in some rituals.

tattoos places and meaning?

Tattoos are placed at specific periods, on occasions and the period of puberty of the girl, when she feels pain, and when the girl is ready for marriage, this period that indicates the maturity and completeness of the girl, and her ability to bear the burdens of married life as the mother endured the tingles; Because it is done by sharp tools and needles, and as for the decoration, its means are varied, such as eyeliner, smoke of grease, fragrant herbs, black charcoal and spices, harcos and cloves. It must be noted that the tattoos in which these materials were used have special significance.The practice of tattooing among the Berbers was more widespread in the villages than in the cities, and it is carried out in very precise rituals by the tattooist, the tattooist being chosen on the basis of her talent in drawing tattoos, and her speed in achieving it, in addition to her mastery of all forms of tattoos.

Process of tottooing in Amazigh culture?

Many narrations say that the Amazigh tattoo in the old days was selected for its supernatural abilities to treat diseases, protect against envy, the evil eye, and break magic. The tattooist and the girl who wants to get tattoos sit on the ground, while other women, including relatives, neighbors and friends, are surrounded by them, observing the process, offering beauty advice and praying with the tattooed person happiness and blessingsFor nomadic tribes in various regions of North Africa, tattoos have always been a sign of identification and distinction between members of different tribes, and tattoos that are mainly placed on the face, usually take forms that express magical purposes, such as avoiding misfortune, protection from the evil eye and bringing wealth and success. With intense concentration, the tattooist draws the desired shape using black coal, then begins to prick the parched area with a needle until blood comes out of it, then rubs the wounded area with burnt soot. It is left for some time, then it is sprinkled with salty water and herbs for sterilization, after a week the wound heals, and it turns into a beautiful green tattoo that takes the form of a letter, a palm tree, a star, a snake or a spider, all of which are linked to nature, and the deep human desire to reproduce its scenes on his body.

Tattoo everywhere in our body?

Amazigh women’s tattoos are located in various areas of her body, including the forehead, between the eyebrows, the cheek, the chin, the shoulder, the arm, the palm, the chest, the breasts, the thigh, the wrist, the knee, the foot, the legs and the neck, but their distribution differed and each member carried a certain sign, this woman was very smart in The distribution of tattoos on her body according to functions and indications, so she chose the leg and hands to master the articulation of the limits of her cultural affiliation to the Amazigh space and time. For the forehead, temples, nose and cheeks, they were elaborately painted on shapes that bear a decorative connotation, and this is what we find in the stereotypical image of the Amazigh bride, who is required by cultural custom to tattoo her face before her wedding, because tattoos add charm and sedition. The beauty of the face at that time was associated with the blackness of the eyes and the blueness of the tattoo on the face. Often you will find them in the fields and the rugged paths of the mountains, chanting lyrical cries whose sharpness and beauty are matched only by the sight of those carefully drawn shapes on their cheeks or chins, and sometimes their necks and hands. Every day, a beauty in which truth is united by imagination, nature with people, colors with features, images with sounds, and singing by drawing on the body. The density of tattoos on the bodies of Amazigh women varies according to tribes, and according to the period in which the tattoo was applied. They reduce it little by little, until they stop tattooing completely in most areas.

Tattoo vs Ahjjam in our culture ?

Some Amazigh tribes practice another type of tattoo called “Ahjjam”, a word that means “healer” in Amazigh language, and this tattoo is used for therapeutic purposes. Women put it on their faces or in different places on the body, so men or women put it in invisible places, such as: the hand, wrist, head, abdomen, and others, and the goal of it is to get rid of headaches, abdominal pain, throat and many, many diseases… The only difference between it and regular tattoos is that “Ahjjam” are tattooed using a knife and not a needle, especially the neck tattoo, which it was associated with the therapeutic value, specifically the treatment of goiter disease. As for the removal of eye pain, the woman tattooed covering the arch of the eyebrow, and she was not satisfied with the treatment only, but she created tattoos to protect her from the disease and distributed them all over her body, for example tattooing on the wedge, the hock and the shoulder to prevent infertility, and the dislocation disease by tattooing on wrist.

Tattoos for deep meaning?

moroccan men tattoos

As I mentioned previously, the tattoos and marks on the body of the Amazigh woman were not absurd. For example, the two parallel lines on the chin are a metaphor for the duality of good and evil within the soul of every human being, and the sign + is not considered a cross, but is also the letter “T” in the Amazigh alphabet inspired by the word “Tammtutt” meaning woman or beautiful women .In her article “Tattooing on the Faces of Berber Women“, the British writer interested in ancient cultures “Sarah Corbett” touched on the meanings of the symbols that Berber women used to use on their faces as tattoos. The tree means strength, the plant and the spider denote fertility, the snake denotes the ability to heal from ailments, and the fly and bee denote supernatural energy;As for the eye of the partridge tattoo, Margaret Corti Clark, a writer and researcher in cultures, considered it a symbol of beauty. She wrote: “In the Berber culture, the partridge is considered as a bird of great beauty and goodness; He makes him associate with the qualities of a good wife, and also believes that his piercing eyes are a vigilant watcher against danger.” The arrow mark tattooed on the upper part of the arm represents the stirrups of the horse’s saddle bearing a story of the knights of the region so that her body retains a collective memory of the heroics of the throne, while the rest of the tattoos are as a series of points On the forehead, the symbol of the sun on the cheek, the straight line, military insignia, plant and animal figures, pentagons, and lattices. These drawings on the wrists were used for fertility and puberty, as well as religious connotations that ward off envy and evil spirits and bring good luck.

Why we wear tattoos?

As a sign of marking the body, reconstructing and writing its history, “it transcends the cosmetic function to other social functions declaring a certain position, some role, some view of the universe and the world, or some fear of the invisible world.” There are those who say that tattoos were made in the past for the purpose of identifying and distinguishing between people and tribes; Therefore, the Berbers usually practiced tattoos, the main objective of which was to distinguish between one tribe and another, as well as to distinguish between adult and married women and between girls who have not yet reached puberty.Through research by Frenchmen Trisan Rivier and Jacques Fauble on “tattooing among the Chaouia and Aures tribes,” the two ethnographic researchers concluded that “young people within these two tribes used to put tattoos on their hands in order to highlight their beauty more and show them more elegant, especially during parties and weddings, when they are beating the tambourine or playing the flute.”

Tattoos between then and Now?

Although tattoos were always somewhat permitted by the Muslim Berbers, unlike the Jews and Christians who considered it forbidden, the “Wahhabi tide, which found a place in the Maghreb countries during the eighties and nineties, made many Amazigh women tend to get rid of tattoos, on their bodies. Sometimes in non-medical ways, believing that they atone for guilt or wrongdoing. Like many customs and beliefs, tattoos among the Berbers began to gradually disappear, according to regions, since the sixties and seventies of the last century. The last generation to carry these symbols and drawings on the body became the generation of grandmothers. These granniesThose who leave successively, bringing with them their oral stories and their beautiful tattoos, tattoos and tales are buried, and a large part of the history and identity of the Berbers are obliterated. The disappearance of tattoos among the Berbers is linked to several reasons, “the most important of which is the religious aspect and also an attempt to hide the territorial identity, as the regimes in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, for example, starting in the sixties, have killed heritage roots and fought everything that is traditional, including Local dress, local customs, and the Amazigh language in order to create an Arabized and ideological human being.It is a great loss for the Amazigh culture, as tattoos have always had a beautiful aesthetic touch. It was simple and profound in its forms. It is as if we had lost a part of an aesthetic imagination that characterized the Amazigh man, as well as all people on earth.” Today, there are new mechanisms to achieve the appearance and celebration of the body, in addition to the fact that the social perspective of the woman who wears tattoos is no longer present today and is viewed with an inferior look. As the standards of beauty have changed, then so have people’s views on it, due to several reasons.No matter how different interpretations about the Amazigh tattoo and its multiple connotations, it remains that delicate language that expresses the desires of the body, and shows the tendency of the human soul towards perfection and its quest for immortality. An adornment that gives radiance to the women’s body without hiding their true nature and faces, far from what globalization promotes today of masks and cosmetics.

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