Whang-od the last Mambabatok

http://lookingforstories.com/philippines/whang-od-the-kalinga-tattoo-maker/

Whang-od Oggay born in 1918 is a Filipina tattoo artist from Buscalan, Tinglayan, Kalinga, Philippines She is considered as the last mambabatok (traditional Kalinga tattooist) from the Butbut Kalinga people and the oldest tattoo artist in the Philippines. Her tattoo ink is composed of the mixture of charcoal and water that will be tapped into the skin through a thorn end of a calamansi or pomelo tree. This ancient technique called batok that dates back a thousand years before her time is relatively painful compared to other conventional techniques. She uses designs found in nature and basic geometric shapes. Due to her status as the last mambabatok, many netizens are lobbying her to be one of the National Artists of the Philippines. Instead of National Artist, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago urged her colleagues in the Philippine Senate through a resolution that Whang-od should be nominated as one of the National Living Treasures or Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan, which is equal rank to National Artist.

(thats a quick bio of her from wikipedia) 

Whang-od orginally created her art on Butbut warriors who earned their tattoos for protecting the villages and their people. Now that she can create them for a fee (in order to survive) the thought process of her work is quite simple. Her tattoos is purely created for its beauty. In the video link she talks about her first tattoo and how she only got it because she felt it would make her prettier and that it was a beautiful design and that really why people there ever got tattoos. (not only did it make me consider getting a tattoo just for the heck of it) but she also has me thinking that not everything you create HAS to be super meaningful and deep or sedimental. Sometimes its nice to create something just because you enjoy the looks of it, simple as that.