The
pictures were lifted (and highlighted) from the 1590 Boxer Codex, the very
first book about Filipinos (Pintados plates 23-24). You will find the
Baybayin scripts u ha prominently marked at the legs, thigh, breasts,
arms, hands and forehead.
The word
uha/panambitan means a prayer or supplication- listed in the 1613 Vocabulario
de la Lengua Tagala as follows: {SB 399 : llorar : panambitan pp : en copla a sus difunctos, nananambitan
.3.ac. llorar ãsimemorando las cosas que con el difuncto es paso en vida,
ypinananambitan .1.P. el que es llorado, sinong pinananambitan doon? A quien lloran alli? hovag
cayong manambitandiyan, no lloreis ay [ahi].}
Baybayin
script u ha may be seen at the Neolithic Angono Petro glyphs, Andres Bonifacio’s
1896 metal engraving in Bahay Nakpil (Manila) and healing materials (currently
used by Lola Aning in her Tapal healing modality inscribed on Ikmo plant leaves
(Luisiana, Laguna). Other healers use cloth and/or paper in writing
the ancient script for Tapal healing.
According
to literatures, tattooing in the Western world today has its origins
in Polynesia through the discovery of tatau by eighteenth century explorers (but most of the
Polynesian culture like pottery and rituals may have originated from the
Philippines- Dizon 2009). The practice became popular among European sailors.
As sailors travelled abroad and returned home with tattoos inscribed on their
bodies, they began to show up in mainstream European and eventually North
American culture.
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