Veiqia

Veiqia, or Weniqia,^[1] is a female tattooing practice from Fiji, where women who have reached puberty are tattooed in the groin and buttocks area by older female tattooing specialists called daubati. Natural materials were used for the inks and to make the tools, some of which were reserved for use on high status women. The process was highly ritualised, although with many regional variations, and could include abstinence and purging as preparation. The process of tattooing was closely associated with young women also being their first liku to wear. This short skirt, along with the veiqia, symbolised that they were now able to marry. Motifs for tattoos included: stars, boats, turtles, ducks, wandering tattlers, pottery and basketwork. The practitioners were women, who were paid in masi (barkcloth), tabua (polished sperm whale teeth) or liku (fringed skirts). One of the last was a women called Rabali who recorded as being active from 1908 to 1910. Special caves called qara ni veiqia were sometimes used, and there traditional medicines given to the young women varied from region to region, some were part of the preparation, whereas others healed the skin. A wide range of natural materials were used to make the tools for incision and the ink. For breaking the skin, some materials included: stingray spines, lemon thorns or shark teeth. Inks were made from Acacia richii or Kauri pine.

For Fijian people, the tattoos accentuated a woman's beauty across the stages of her life. If a woman did not have veiqia she might find it difficult to find a husband; if she died without them, they would be painted on her body so she could move into the afterlife. Similar patterns to the veiqia were also replicated on barkcloth and wooden weapons. Veiqia can cultural impact outside Fiji: according to mythology, pe'a, a Samoan tattoo practice is based on veiqia. The practice was discouraged by missionary activities, some of which took place under British colonial rule in the nineteenth century. Whilst there is an important archive of veiqia research at the Fiji Museum, western museum collections hold more artefacts relating to the practice. The practice has undergone revival in the twenty-first century, led by the work of The Veiqia Project. Julia Mage’au Gray is a modern daubati, who has tattooed veiqia to several women.