![]() ![]() ![]() "I think of them as sisters in the fight for equality for reparations and acknowledgement."Īlaska and Canada are home to diverse Indigenous cultures that include facial tattoos, a practice that remained widespread and unchanged for millennia before being banned. "I'm so proud of those two women, educating and normalizing and reminding the world that we are still here and thriving despite continued attempts at genocide through every system they have placed upon us," Nordlum says. Holly Mititquq Nordlum, a tattoo artist of Iñupiaq background, is glad to see this tradition being brought to the public. She's helped bring Indigenous face tattoos to the masses, too: Chasinghorse made history in 2021 as the first Indigenous woman to walk for Chanel and attend the Met Gala, and she also starred in Zara's recent "Skin Love" Campaign, helping to challenge and redefine the notion of beauty. Supermodel Quannah Chasinghorse, who is Hän Gwich'in and Oglala Lakota, also has traditional facial tattoos - called Yidįįłtoo, which is a singular line running down the chin - as a marker for her culture. More people are becoming aware of the traditional tattoo practices in Indigenous cultures thanks to people like Nova bringing them to the limelight. It's part of our identity, and it's part of who I am. But today there are more and more Inuit getting their Tunniit and Kakiniit. People felt ashamed to have them, it was a forbidden practice. But in the 20th century, this practice was banned by the Christian missionaries, it was considered evil and demonic. Inuit had tattoos as a rite of passage and to show their accomplishments, but it was also to beautify a woman. The one on my cheeks, I keep them personal to myself. Three months later, she revealed the meaning behind them in another video: "The one on my chin represents womanhood, and to honor all the beautiful women that helped guide me every single day. (Kakiniit refers to the tattoo process and tradition the face tattoos are referred to as tunniit.) "A lot of people told me I would regret it and that it would ruin my face, my 'beauty,'" she wrote in the caption. Last December, Inuit TikTok user Shina Nova got her first facial tattoos - a thin line etched vertically on her chin and two across both cheeks - called tunniit and kakiniit. ![]()
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