Empreinte aux Marquises (Marquesan Print)

Coming from Europe, it takes more than two days to get to the Marquesas islands in the French Polynesia area. After a brief stop in Tahiti, I flew two more times in tiny planes to join a couple of Swiss journalists who were sailing on their boat called Chamade. Marc Decrey and Sylvie Cohen invited me in this very special spot in the world to meet Teiki Huukena, a traditional tattoo artist from the Marquesas islands who is currently researching the roots of his culture to write a book about it.

And so it all started with the tattoos. I had seen some tribal ones from Oceania, but never from the Marquesas in particular. They are, in some ways, comparable to the ones made in Tahiti, although each area has its own traditions in order to mark its territory and define its identity.

When the French took control of the islands, they did everything they could to abolish any language they wouldn't understand including tattoos. Looking closely at them, one can easily see stories told on the skin, inspired by the gods and spirits of Nature as a form of protection. Even if the Tiki – literally meaning man-god, a mythical character who fathered mankind – is still highly respected and often replicated, Catholicism supplanted old beliefs so much that today's superstitions prevent from any evocation of yesteryear's deity.

Since the beginning of my research, I could directly see similarities with shamanic aspects, a topic I have been studying for many years in several parts of the world. In concrete terms, a shaman percieves other dimensions, other realities, guided by his spirits who often send him messages to interpret through symbols. But in order to respect the local beliefs, I decided to work by association of ideas, concentrating around the tattoos as main element, describing it through Nature as I encountered it : scratches inscribed in trees, lines in the ground, marks in rocks, similar shapes in different matters. Marquesan people keep a very instinctive approach in their way of living and Nature often guides their actions. Spoken words remain silent when it comes to supernatural things, yet everything is there, protecting mysteries.

All these triptyches form stories like those engraved in the skin. Bodies, Nature and matters blend, mix, melt, imbricate in each others, and leave a furtive track of their being. What they evoke, the way they are reunited, is being revealed by intuition.