Roonui Anania

This film focuses on the links between Maori tattoo artists from New Zealand (James Webster, Juliee Paama Penguely, Moko de la Terre) and those from French Polynesia (Roonui Anania, Chimé, Laurent Purotu). With interventions by specialists Sébastien Galliot and Michael Koch.

Tatak ng apat na alon tribe, is better known in English as Mark of the four wawes tribe. Made up of just over 150 members, this collective based in Los Angeles popularizes traditional Filipino tattooing around the world. At its head for more than twenty years, we find the famous artist Elle Festin and his wife, Zelle Festin.

Everyone knows Pitore in Moorea. Pitore is a sculptor, farmer, fisherman, canoe builder, fare builder, masseur and tattooist. He also makes medicines based on medicinal plants.

Roonui Anania, Chimé and Purotu started tattooing themselves and tattooing in the street, by snatch, that means with sewing needles attached to match sticks, then electric razors. Indian ink in a beer cap and off we went. Then Tavana Salmon brought back the first pig tooth combs, which they were not able to use for long due to hygiene. Impossible to sterilize. We had to go back to the electric razor, look for solutions. This film tells the story of the rebirth of Polynesian tattooing, then its expansion, told by the three greatest masters of Polynesian tattooing.

Sampaguita Jay is one of the black and gray tattoo specialists in France. With the Mark of the Four Wawes Tribe collective, she popularized traditional Filipino tattooing, where she was originally from.