The photograph really keeps everything especially the most important events in our lives. With the help of photography, we can look back from where we were and reminisce on that day we snap it. It’s amazing how technology keeps these memories.
Recently, a teenage photo of the famous Filipino tattoo artist went viral on social media.
Meet Whang Od Oggay, popularly known as Whang-Od or Maria Oggay. The 102-year-old tattoo artist is helping to keep one of the ancient traditions of Kalinga Province in the Philippines. She is the oldest “mambabatok”, a traditional Kalinga tattooist.
Using a handmade ink from a mixture of pine soot and water, she tattoos visitors who traveled a 15-hour drive from Manila to the mountain of Buscalan which is only accessible by hike. The ink was tapped into the skin using a thorn from a pomelo tree and bamboo to push it in.
She started her craft when she was a youth. However, it is against their tradition that women learn tattoo because this is solely for men in the tribe. By the age of 15, she was under the guidance of her father, starting her tattoo apprenticeship.
But aside from her popularity as an oldest Filipino tattoo artist, her teenage photo recently garnered attention from the online community.
Posted by John Kiven Ortiz, people were amazed how beautiful Whang Od is when she was in her younger years. Born on February 17 1917, she was blessed to reach her age healthy and still beautiful.
According to an interview, what makes her healthy is not eating canned goods with oil and food with preservatives. Well, that’s a good habit though. Judging her photo, she’s really beautiful and looks healthy.
Whang Od has no children of her own and they believed that this art can only be transferred by blood relatives. She trained her nieces to become a tattoo artist.