Shore Leave
Good food, reasonable drinks and a few tattoos…
THURSDAY, 04.02.09
CATALYST 2 Seaman Loren Lange proudly shows off his new ink. The design at the bottom is a representation of a Frigate Bird, highly esteemed by the Samoan culture.
0043: Interlude, The Life Islandic
So we’ve been here on Samoa for a few days now, and I promised a picture of the crew’s free time. You can get a good idea of Samoa from Wikipedia and Google Earth, but what won’t come across is the vibe. It’s a little rough and tumble, the buildings are concrete block and tinned roofs, and I’m sure the water, sewage and electricity are well below what we would consider standard. The villages are clustered around family and that seems a pretty solid societal base that is reflected in the humanity here. The people are gracious, kind and welcoming. Over the course of the last few days most of the crew have been hanging at Tisa’s — a palapa set up on the beach across the bay and run by a local woman, Tisa, and her Kiwi boyfriend, the Candyman. They’re mid-40s and have a pretty sweet spot in life.
No electricity, no needles. Traditional Samoan tattooing uses natural inks impressed into the flesh with a shark tooth or boar tusk driven by a mallet.
Good food, reasonable drinks and Tisa will set you up with her brother, Wilson, who is the local tattoo artist of some renown. He’s a bit older, probably pushing 50, classic Samoan and does traditional tattoos. Instead of a needle, he uses a stick with shark teeth and carved boar tusks to imprint the ink. The teeth and tusks are mounted on a little stick that he then taps quickly with another that acts like a mallet. It’s fast and free form, and the work is amazing. I’ll shoot some pics of the work that’s been done on the crew and send them off. You don’t get much of an idea of what he’s gonna do; he talks to you for a while and gets a feel for who you are. You discuss the basics, where and how big, and then he starts hammering away. It’s a gamble and all who have played are proud of their ink. There are at least a dozen among our current and past crew.
(L-R) Steward Assistant Kimberly Heine and Mechanical Engineer/Operator Brennan Phillips of Woods Hole (WHOI) join another visitor (far right) in showing off their traditional tattoos. The man in the red is Wilson, a world-recognized traditional tattooist.
We are scheduled to leave at 7 a.m. local on April 2nd. Keep a happy thought my friends.
DEPART AMERICAN SAMOA FOR LEG 2
1106: We Have Pulled Our Gangplank And Will Be Underway Momentarily