 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
An artist on a "trip to find himself and his art", Wilson Fitiao relentless seeks the spiritual gifts and skill from a master in traditional tattooing, and nurtures his talents by living a life of free, unattached emotions.
His master is Suluape, a well known contemporary tattoo master. The life Fitiao lives is, "as free as I can maintain it to allow my creative thoughts to flourish."
The youthful artist, without a conventional job, maintains himself with the compensation he earns plying his creative trade. He uses the money to travel to Samoa to attend Suluape's tattooing sessions.
Like other artists, Fitiao intimately knows blood and sweat and the limits of flesh. But as a tattooist, Fitiao is dealing with the actual blood and sweat and flesh of his canvas, his clients.
It can be overwhelming, he reports. Tattooing another's body is a great drama that goes on for hours or days, and leaves Fitiao "drenched" with visions of tatau designs at the end of each day.
"My head gets so full that in order to get a release, I usually sit with pen and paper at the end of each day and sketch my visions. And my feelings of course.
The tattoo artist first found his love of art in a siapo program organized at Fagaitua High School by the late Mary Pritchard. When the program ended, it was up to Fitiao to continue on his own, along with a few other devotees.
"We just continued drawing our siapo designs, experimenting with various pattern combinations, and we were quite into the designs.
Tattooing (referred to by some as 'skin art') provided a change in inspiration. "Skin art had a mana and quality that just drew me towards it. The arm band (taulima) gave me something to start with.
"I incorporated the siapo designs into the first arm bands I did, and it was a hit.
"Gradually, I was familiarized with the serious traditional tattooing for men and women. In a little time, I was getting deeper and deeper into male (malofie/pe'a) and female (malu) traditional tattooing."
He freely admits to having touched only the surface of the deep well of values and custom, as represented by the tattooing guild practices and the customs controlling it. "I am overwhelmed with the deep values, the respect in the guild. It changed totally the way I look at things, at life and my involvement in art, to see, hear and feel these customs in the sublime level of real life here in Samoa.
"I now understand why Samoan artists in tattooing have baffled many western art critics with their tremendous skills in applying the various designs and patterns without aid of blue prints and plans or scientific equipment."
Fitiao continues to attend Suluape's tattooing jobs at all the islands in Samoa. He also continues to get deeper and deeper into his creation of the new blend of skin and siapo design patterns.
His dream he admits is to be able to apply the traditional tatau on men and women, as his master does.
He is satisfied with working full time on his art, not worrying about being "in" with the social trends. One of these days, he believes his original blends of siapo and tatau design patterns will fill a niche, a niche he is pricking in the skin of the People.
 |
|
|
| Sketch Art | Body Art | The Pe'a |
|
|
|
|
| Ed | Lavania | Evannah | Samoa |
|
|
|
|
|
| Links | Awards | Credits | Rings | Home |
