Batek: Traditional Tattoos and Identities in Contemporary Kalinga, North Luzon Philippines

Abstract

Traditional tattooing was widespread in the Philippines in the early 16th century, but documentation is limited.
Existing sources on Northern Luzon tattoos are inadequate and ethnocentric, vaguely addressing function, symbolism, and cultural connections.
Tattooing in the Cordilleras is primarily understood in the context of headhunting, but the exact meanings of tattoos remain unknown.
The paper explores the roles and functions of tattoos (batek) as cultural symbols within the Ilubo, Kalinga community.
The batek of the Ilubo, now no longer practiced, are visually powerful and represent symmetry and unity of designs, serving as a cultural archive.
Keywords: Tattoo, rites of passage, body adornment, identity, Kalinga

Introduction

The author's interest in traditional tattoos began in 1990 after meeting an old Bontoc woman (Apong) in Baguio City.
Apong's thick, black, geometric tattoos fascinated the author, highlighting the author's ethnocentric bias due to unfamiliarity.
Apong concealed her tattoos with long sleeves but eventually showed them to the author before passing away. Regret was expressed for not learning more about the tattoos.
The author realized that fatek (local term for tattoos) and the older generation of Igorots represent a valuable culture and tradition.
The author searched for data on fatek in various archives and museums but found limited information.
The author visited Kabayan, Benguet, where the mummy Appo Anno, clad in elaborate tattoos, was returned home. Study was hindered due to restrictions by the Benguet people and the National Museum.
In 1994 and 1998-2001, Gran Cordillera Festivals showed a decline in the number of tattooed elders attending.
Fieldwork from 1990-2006 involved yearly visits to remote Cordillera villages to investigate fatek.
Very few tattooed people remain, and many have died.
In March 2000, the author met Lakay Jacob Angnganai, possibly the oldest surviving manbatek (tattoo artist) of Lubo, Kalinga province.
Lakay Jacob, over a hundred years old, had not tattooed in 40 years but tattooed a young Ilubo lad one last time due to the author's interest.
The tattoo session involved patterns, ink, and needles, with the tapping of the pat-ik (stick) to the gisi (tattoo instrument).
The designs were similar to those previously seen and were of amazing beauty.
Lakay Jacob gave his equipment to the author and companion, marking his last tattoo session.
Lakay Jacob could no longer tattoo due to old age and failing eyesight.

Background of the Study

The word "tatow" first appeared in Captain Cook’s written accounts in First Voyage (1769) in Tahiti Island, denoting markings on Polynesian skin.
Tatow involves a painful operation to form permanent marks by puncturing the skin and inserting pigments.
Variations include tatu, tatau, and tataou, meaning "to strike or to stamp."
In the Philippines, the general term for tattoos is batuk or patik.
Among groups in Northern Luzon, batek (Kalinga), fatek (Bontoc), and fatok (Benguet) are derived from the sound of tapping the tattoo instrument.
The word tek (tik) translates to "to hit slowly."
This differs from batek in Indonesia and Malaysia, which refers to an intricate textile technique.
Batek is the Kalinga term for traditional tattoos, known for symmetry and elaborate designs.
The Kalinga may have the largest number of surviving practitioners from various Mountain Provinces.
The tattoos are living testaments to traditional tattooing practices.
Batek is characterized by marking, decorating, and designing permanently.
It is done through hand-tapped pricking by a manbatek (tattoo artist).
Instruments include a carabao horn (gisi), bent by fire with lemon thorns and/or four needles (gambang).
Other traditional instruments include comblike or knifelike barbs made from turtle shells.
Today, electric tattoo machines reduce the pain of the process.
Ilubo patterns are applied onto the skin with a wood carved with tattoo patterns (kammai) dipped in ink (merteka).
The skin is then pierced and the design filled in through tapping the stick (pat-ik) on the gisi.
Tattooing is lengthy and painful, taking a day to a week due to the four-needle instrument requiring 90 to 120 taps per minute.
The healing process takes one to three months.
The Ilubo have a systematic process of paying for the manbatek's services, such as addongan beads, kinubar beads, loincloth, or wraparound skirt.
Silver coins could be given for tattoos on the lower and upper arm.
In the early 16th century, traditional tattooing was widespread in the Philippines, but documentation is limited.
Research reveals that sources for studying traditional tattoos in Northern Luzon are scarce and unrevealing.
Accounts by Spaniards in the early 18th century are inadequate and ethnocentric.
In 16th-century culture, tattooing was common among warrior groups in the Cordillera.
Headhunting and tattooing were more extensive at the time of the Spaniards' arrival than during the American period.
Foreign ethnographers reinforced the idea that tattooing was primarily and solely connected to headhunting.
Tattoos were symbols of male valor, applied after performing in battle with courage.
Warriors accumulated tattoos with each act of bravery, similar to modern military decorations.
Tattooing and tattoo designs in the Cordilleras are best understood in the context of headhunting and warriors (mai’ngor).
The study aims to provide insights into the roles and functions of tattoos and their significance as cultural symbols.
After Spanish friars eliminated the "savage custom" through Christianity, tattooing waned and was forgotten.
Today, batek (traditional tattoos) is an extant culture among the Ilubo of southern Kalinga.
The Ilubo are found in the most isolated area in the province, enclosed by a long mountain range.

Toward an Understanding of Batek

Rituals are essential for creating and maintaining a particular culture and its assumptions.
Rites of passage are evident in rituals and embody the bases for social relations.
Ritual symbols enable people to identify and know their society, achieving total personhood.
Anthropologists have increased interest in the symbolic nature of culture and meaning.
Victor Turner asserts that understanding cultural life requires isolating symbols, identifying their meanings, and showing how symbols resonate within a specific, dynamic cultural context.
Turner developed the idea of communitas, which involved social integration associated with the power of symbols.
This approach focused on the ways in which public ritual, particularly in initiation rites, reinforced a sense of solidarity and, in some cases, provided a source of cultural change.
Kalinga tattoos are deeply ingrained symbols within specific fields of Kalinga's sophisticated sphere of social action and different rites of passage in the context of the tattooing tradition.
As a Kalinga passes from childhood, adulthood (igam) and old age (baratang/baraker), his or her place in society changes.
Individuals undergo transitions from one status to the other, and the changes in nature and destiny and/or changes in their bodies are denoted by the tattoos accorded to each transition.
The Ilubo tattooing practice periodic or incremental ritualistic performances to achieve the full status and signifies one’s membership and belongingness to the community.
Turner argues that ritual, the acting out of beliefs and symbolic meanings, plays the vital role of holding things together.
On the nature of symbols, Turner writes:

I found I could not analyze ritual symbols without studying them in a time series in relation to other “events,” for symbols are essentially involved in social processes. From this standpoint the ritual symbol becomes a factor in social action, a positive force in an activity field. The symbol becomes associated with human interests, purposes, ends, and means, whether these are explicitly formulated or to have been inferred from the observed behavior. The structure and properties of a symbol become those of a dynamic entity, at least within its appropriate context of action (20).

The Ilubo of Kalinga pass through a series of rituals to denote passage from one stage to another.
In each of these rites, boundary-markers are made through the ritual of tattooing (accompanied by complex rituals performed by the manbatek and the kin groups) by piercing their body with symbolic patterns and designs, bearing significant meanings mutually intelligible to the group members.
Rituals focalize attention, evoke collective memory, and imbue individuals with a sense of membership and community, building collective Kalinga identity.

Permanent Markings on the Skin: Why the Kalinga Tattoo Their Bodies

Tattoos in Rites of Passage

Van Gennep divides ceremonies for life events into three stages: rites of separation, rites of transition, and rites of incorporation.
The complete scheme includes preliminal rites (rites of separation), liminal rites (rites of transition), and postliminal rites (rites of incorporation), but these classifications are not always equally important.
Rites of separation remove the individual from society, as in funeral ceremonies.
Rites of transition highlight isolation before incorporation, as in pregnancy, betrothal, and initiation.
Rites of incorporation involve the reunion of the individual with society in his or her new status.
Changes of condition produce social disturbance, and rites reduce the harmful effects and restore social equilibrium.
Van Gennep’s schema is used with variations to analyze the significance of batek in the rites of passage of the Ilubo.

Batek in the Rites of Separation

Ceremonies of pregnancy and childbirth (umanak) among the Ilubo Kalinga demonstrate a weakness of Van Gennep’s scheme.
The umanak is the first rite performed upon separation of a child from the womb.
The mandadawak (female shamans) plays a vital role in performing important rites.
One important tattoo in rites of separation is the lin-lingao, x-marks found on the forehead, cheeks, and nose of married and/or pregnant women.
The lin-lingao is tattooed before women marry, providing protection from the alan-alan, spirits that dwell in the village, especially after a headhunt.
These spirits are believed to be those of the enemies killed by the warriors.
The spirits come and take revenge by "taking their children away."
Spirits are believed to cause sudden and unexplained deaths of children and infants.
The spirit of a deceased grandparent can also make a child ill, so the child may join him in the afterworld.
Women tattoo themselves to "scare" and "drive the spirits away."
The lin-lingao (x-marks) "confuse" the spirits, preventing them from recognizing the person they want to exact revenge on.
The batek is a means to deceive malevolent spirits and impede their machinations, fostering the belief that the lin-lingao and other rites are effective means of protection.
Van Gennep notes the confusion of rites of passage with rites of protection.
The lin-lingao shelters the woman and child from malevolent powers and ensures good health.
When the child reaches two or three years old, he or she undergoes the gammid, where grandparents recognize and accept the grandchild and the grandfather tenders a small party and gives a gift to the child.
At the age of 10 to 15 years, adolescents are taught how to kill.

“The boys were allowed to hack and spear the corpses of enemies that were carried home for the purpose. For sons of the pangats . . . they would take his little son, sneak up behind some citizen, and help the boy jab a spear into one of the citizen’s buttocks. Then the pangat would pick up his young hopeful and hurry into his house. He would later pay wergilds. The boy would immediately attain great prestige in his own age group and be entitled to his tattoo as soon as he came of age (Barton 42-43).”

Boys at this stage develop pride in warfare-related activities and become proficient in the use of the spear, shield, and head axe in preparation for war-related activities.
Today, these activities have become insignificant to the youth who have gone out of Lubo to study and to work in the cities.

Batek and Rites of Transition

In the Ilubo, childhood lasts until the performance of an important ceremony called the igam.
This marks the beginning of adolescence.
At the age of 15 to 18 years, a Lubo male goes on to his igam, a ceremony reserved for the men in early adulthood, as this is an initiation to manhood.
The initiation rites establish sexual identity and adult status.
Lakay Ollasic (90+ years old), a pangat (leader), describes his initiation.
The elders told him to go to the river and fish or to the forest to hunt. This preparatory rite for the actual igam is called lames ni wangwang.
He returned to the village after his successful hunting, and, while on his way back to the village, he recounts that he sang the dinayan song, boasting of his success and bringing in the catch.
During this initial stage of the ritual, the animals are said to be the substitutes for the head/s to be taken during the actual headtaking.
Lakay Ollasic, who participated in the kayaw (headhunting), had his igam performed when he was 19-20 years old.
He joined and participated in the killings in the anti-Japanese military movement in Lubuagan and Tanglag.
The Kalinga harbored the Americans and were feared guerilla warriors. A number of Kalinga proudly exhibit tattooed chests that they acquired because they had killed Japanese soldiers.
While returning home, the young Ollasic and his companions, undergoing igam, had to jump over an ardan (ladder) in the village entrance called the sipotan.
The sipotan is like a point of passage and a boundary that separates the individual from the enemy world (separation).
Ollasic explained that the symbolic jumping over the ladder is a physical expression of not leaving their soul or sanity in the outside (enemy’s) world. Therefore, crossing a threshold is symbolic of a reunion with or a reincorporation into the community.
Upon entry to the village, they were stripped off all their clothes (karaka), and they only had wide leaves to cover themselves.
Ollasic recalls “karakain nan kami,” meaning, the people took away all the possessions of the returning warrior, like clothes, beads, durao (headdress), baag (loincloth), spears or shield.
The karaka is a ritual believed to bestow good health and luck to the people and is supposed to transfer the luck of a successful warrior to the people.
For the warriors, the act is believed to make them strong and sturdy like the warriors of the past.
The igam also entails the men’s participation in the baruknit (intervillage conflicts), where they kill or literally bring home an enemy’s head.
The igam continues with another rite, where the neophyte warrior is given a durao, a warrior or headhunter’s plume, and is brought to the kayaw for the first time to join the headhunting expedition with the rest of the male neophytes in the community.
Kayaw means the mass invasion of a village by the inhabitants of another village. This involves open clashes between two hostile groups. Even teenagers who are able to bear arms are allowed to go along with their elders.
Warriors who are against their kabusor (an enemy) from another village are encouraged to mangkayaw or to kill someone (papatay).
Lakay Ollasic continues: the next day, his mother Sapgatin called the mandadawak to perform the dawak (chants).
There was chanting and the rhythmic beating of the gangsa (gongs) by Ollasic’s other companions. He danced while holding a chicken. The mandadawak placed a red scarf (bandela) around his head, and stuck rooster feathers as head plumes. The priestess prayed that, whenever he wears the durao, he would always be brave and strong. The mandadawak then tied the baag (loincloth) around his waist.
When Ollasic turned 21, the process of tattooing was performed. He was tattooed by the manbatek in the village. Right after the war against the Japanese, Ollasic and his other male companions, numbering over 50 young men, were simultaneously tattooed by all manbateks in the village. It took three days to tattoo them, and the men had to bear the painful pricking of their skin.
The batek session of the maingor (warrior) is the solemn milestone in maturity for Ilubo males. It marks the total departure from childhood and adolescence.
The tattoos include the (a) binulibud, three parallel lines found at the lower to the upper arm; and (b) the bikking, chest tattoos.
One of the important rites that are not openly discussed by the old Ilubo warriors is circumcision.
There is a notion that initiation rites coincide with puberty, and that this physiological phenomenon is the point of departure for all such ceremonies (Van Gennep 65). In an effort to approximate their ages and to delineate the mark of physiological and social puberty, I have found out that circumcision, or the ritual of sigyat can be performed later and that tattooing is a priority among the Ilubo males. In other words, the batek comes before circumcision.
Likewise, young women in puberty are tattooed. For the women, however, the dumara (menstruation) is not a total taboo in the society.
The tattooing is done before and/or after the menstruation of a young woman. Many of my informants approximate that they were tattooed between the ages of 13 to 15 years, just right before or right after their menstruation. Some of the old women said that tattooing helps in the smooth flow of blood from the vagina. Menstruation is an indication of physiological puberty, and is a biological prerequisite for marriage.
The women are tattooed with the (a) nirafarafat or inufu-ufug (centipede designs) on the arms, lower arm and on the shoulder blades.
Tattooing is also a preparatory rite for both males and females to enter another state of passage called the adumba. This is a dance ceremony of the retreating men, who beat the gongs suspended from human jawbones, and encircle the women, who mark time without locomotion and revolve in place to face the warriors dancing around them. In any Kalinga dance, physical contact among the dancers is taboo.
Apo Bayyang and Liddawa, two old women from Lubo, recall the adumba done while they were still young. They explained that tattooing was already done, so they could find prospective partners among the tattooed warriors during the celebration of the sagang (the victory feast). The women were reported to have the privilege of being tattooed whenever a male relative received his tattoo. Since all regional members are considered related, a woman is always able to find some tattooed male relative who gives her the right to be tattooed.
During the adumba, the women wear the kain adorned with platelets of silver and colored stones, creating an impact on the sight and sound of the dance. The tattoos also make them attractive to the men and vice versa.
Apo Bayyang explains that the adumba is the event where the women can find a potential mate, and that this rite of adumba is an indication that a woman is of marrying age and capable of bearing a child. They are already considered marriageable after they complete the ceremonies.
The sexual, reproductive, emotional, intellectual, and role changes result from the destiny and nature of the individual’s body.
The mai‘ngor (warriors) and bobaei (women) now join the autonomous worlds of mature adults or ancestors. The adumba is a rite of passage, where changes take place in the total person.
Batek is not just for men but for women. The tattoos for women indicate initiation into adulthood and full participation in the social life of the group. Tattoos signify acceptance, a sense of belonging, and identity. Daughters of the kadangyan (the rich) members of the community are obliged to have their tattoos when they reach puberty. The pressure of being labeled “different” from the rest of the community is a cause of shame.
Batek also indicates permanent differentiation from peers. In different villages, there are stories of how the young girls without tattoos get teased by the young men. The young men would make fun of girls by spitting on their hands, and rubbing these on the girl’s arms. This was probably taken as a sign that the girls were entering a stage of maturity and, as such, obliged to accept their social functions such as getting tattoos or preparing for marriage.

Batek and Rites of Incorporation

One of the markers for incorporation and/or advancement of a mai’ngor into a higher class is his participation in the kayaw (headhunt).
Among the Ilubo Kalingas and other groups in the Cordillera, a young man cannot be sure of marrying the woman of his choice until he has taken part in a successful headhunt.
Today, headhunting is no longer practised: it was outlawed extensively when the Americans came in the 1940s. The men’s participation in the kayaw was inspired by the dagdagas, which literally means to bring home the head, and win the woman of his choice.
Headhunting may be used in the accumulation of the “soul force” beneficial for the warrior and the community. Hence, kayaw and batek are considered sources of much virility to the young warriors.
Marriage constitutes a clear mark of permanent incorporation among the Ilubo into a family. If certain arrangements and dowry exchange are done on both the male and the female, the kopya is performed. The kopya is the ceremonial blessing of the newly married couples. The union of the two individuals is also the union of collective groups like kindred brethren. Today, this ritual has found a substitute in church weddings and civil marriages.
In 1990, I met Apo Arrunai, one of the old women from Kalinga, who recalled that her father had tattoos all over his body, and he married her mother who also had full body tattoos. She was once told as a young child (while being pressured to get her arm tattoo) that the tattoos of her parents were a source of pride and were responsible for the birth of 15 children. The old, especially the women, explained that one of the reasons for their fertility was the presence of their body tattoos. In cases where the mother had tattoos, the father was encouraged to have one. Furthermore, she explained that, to some, wealth was based not only on material wealth but also on the number of children. Many of the old men and women had seven to 12 children, as family planning was not practised in this society. However, some couples still preferred to have fewer children because this was a better assurance that the inheritance will stay in the family.
I asked most of the women (all 35 tattooed female informants) if they actually got their tattoos willingly. Many said they were obliged by their parents or pressured by the rest of the group. In some cases, the girls could no longer bear the pain, and refused to finish the process. There were 28 informants who had unfinished tattoos, i.e., 28 of them do not have the tattoos at the back of the hand; 32 do not have the sinokray (necklace tattoo).
Three informants had one-half of their arms tattooed, but most wore the upper and lower arm tattoos.

Incorporation to the Maingor

The prevalence of tattooing in the pre-Spanish period is also the perpetuation of the kamaranan, a dominant warrior class and the life force of Ilubo polity. A warrior (mai’ngor) is assured of membership to the kamaranan through his participation in a successful headtaking. In the past, offensive warfare was organized for the purpose of gaining renown, prestige, the right to manifest heroic deeds by way of tattoo designs tattooed on men’s breasts, throats and shoulders.
In baruknit (intervillage conflicts), spears were thrown; head axes were brandished, warriors killed, and heads were taken off. Actually, only a minority of the men were “headhunters,” although many more had been part of the headhunting party. Only the actual killer was accorded the honor of a tattoo, but in cases where more than one person claimed the honor for the same victim, all those who hacked the same victim to death could claim to have killed such a victim and, hence, earned tattoos.
Tattooing starts at the back of the hand and the wrists. The first kill is denoted with stripe patterns which appear like tie band called gulot, or pinupungol. The term munggolot refers to the chief of the headhunting raid and literally means the “cutter of the head”, so when the gulot tattoo is earned, this means that the person has killed someone or has become a “headtaker.” Those who have killed two individuals have tattoo patterns on their hands. Warriors who have killed ten or more are the individuals who are permitted to wear the chest tattoos and other elaborate insignias (like the head axe) at the side of their stomach, back, thighs and legs and even the cheeks to connote unrivalled bravery of a warrior in a certain village (warrior status as mai’ngor or mu’urmut).
Tattooing increases in proportion to the number of heads or participation in headhunting forays. Barton once called these tattoos: “badges of honor” similar to the badges worn by present-day military soldiers. However, these “badges” are earned the painful way, and are permanently inscribed. He cites the following conditions to earn a tattoo:

If in killing or disposing of an enemy, a warrior fell into either of the following categories, he was entitled to one or any succeeding stage of the tattoo. After having obtained the first five tattoos, he could have any or all the rest without any further “killings:” (1) wounder of the living enemy, gimaiyang; (2) giver of the coup de grace, manela; (3) taker of the lower jaw - it is taken before the head is severed sami; (4) taker of the head, maniwat; (5) wounder of the torso, dumagin (238).

The black tattoo pattern against the brown skin made warriors look fearsome to the other members of other tribes, and appear attractive to women. Headhunters inspired fear in other people, especially those not closely related to them, because the tattoos indicated that they had killed. At the same time, tattoos also inspired confidence in their kinsmen and village mates because headhunters were chief protectors. A settlement with one or more renowned headhunters made people safe from invasion, and their relatives could also feel confident in case of grave local disputes.
Being a man in Kalinga used to be defined by earning the coveted dakag tattoos found at the back of the body. The wearer of the dakag is a recognized for exceptional and unsurpassed bravery. It is also worthwhile to note that the Kalingas did not only go to the war front to fulfill their prime duty to defend their country but also to take advantage of the opportunity to be warriors like their forebears.
The baruknit of the past were justified by the needs of the community; tattoos were considered as “badges of honor.” The warrior becomes a legitimate member of the kamaranan, the warrior class which is the life force of Ilubo. Incorporation to the group entails courage and determination. For the young and new warriors called the mai’ngor, getting a tattoo at that instant is a public declaration of bravery and advantageous for them, most especially if they are unmarried as this makes them more attractive to the women. For the mu’urmut (revered warrior), the marking adds to his prestige, and he gains more respect from the community. Through this, the mai’ngor and mu’urmut may improve their social standing, and become a lalakay (respected elder).
A man who has earned tattoos has social privileges, religious roles and political influence in the community. As the mai’ngor grows older and becomes a mu’urmut (revered warrior), he also becomes a respected elder – a pangat (consultant) in pudons, or buddongs (peace pacts) between communities and other tribal groups. He is accorded respect and acknowledged as an elder: an elder who has a distinguished headhunting record, an aggressive personality and a persuasive arbiter. This is the case of the surviving tattooed men who, in their old age, continue to carry significant roles and maintain influence in the community to this day. Although the elders sustain the village polity, they now play a very limited role in the centralized political organization in Kalinga, and are largely called on for ceremonial purposes only.
Today, killing (using guns and arms) by revenge is done on a personal basis. In fact, educated people — even the innocent ones — have been the prized targets for revenge. In my last fieldwork in Kalinga, I witnessed indiscriminate firing and bombing due to intervillage conflicts. This endless conflict has resulted in employees leaving their jobs, and the cancellation of classes. Several have sought peace and refuge in other provinces. “Honor” is accorded to the perpetrator of various crimes.

Liminality of Rites of Passage

The transition from one stage to the other draws attention to the liminality of the rites of passage. The period has the properties of the threshold, a sacred boundary between two spaces, where antagonistic principles confront one another and the world is reversed. The rites of these moments also obey the principle of the maximization of magical profits $(Bourdieu \ 70)$ .
Once the batek is placed on the skin, an individual has to undergo a process of healing and recovery. The pain is both physical and psychological, and may explain why some women walk away from the process. For instance, when natives die of natural causes, the practice of putting the dead in a “chair,” called sangidel, results in the swelling of their arms. The swelling of the arms is very similar to what occurs during the tattoo process. This “probably” creates a psychological impact that made them walk away from the painful process. The swelling of the arms usually take about two weeks to subside after the tattooing process, and even if the swollen arms are given some time to rest and heal, work never ceases. Moreover, newly tattooed women still have to tend to their household chores and farming.
For three days, the swelling arms do not subside. Yet the men and women still continue with their daily chores. At this stage, there are taboos in tattooing: they are not allowed to eat food that can cause itchiness and irritation to the wounds, i.e., sili, gabi, and salt. Neither do they apply anything to heal the wound. The wound dries after two weeks to one month and the newly tattooed bathe in the river, and wash their wounds so the dead skin peels off. Depending on how the wounds heal, coconut oil, or, sometimes, pig fat is applied on the skin so as to keep it dry and the tattoos visible. This practice of applying coconut oil on tattooed skin is still performed by old men and women. The beautiful tattoos become clear and black. Oil applied to the skin enhances the wearer’s healthy appearance and vivacity $(Strathern \ 95)$ .
Another psychological pain is the pressure from the parents, society and their male counterparts. Young women with tattoos are prepared for the adumba, the sign that a woman is ready to marry and give birth to a child. A woman who refuses to be tattooed is said to be barren. When a tattoo is placed on the skin, there is no way to remove it because the ink is placed deep beneath the skin’s outer layer. There are no other reasons why some women do not finish their tattoos. Some observed that when one gets old and the skin becomes wrinkled, especially the wrists, the skin looks very dark and ugly. Tattooed women between the ages of 45 to 50 years conspicuously have worn long-sleeved shirts to cover their tattoos and do not allow their wrists to be tattooed because of disgrace. In the earlier records, during the country’s colonial history, people with tattoos were regarded as criminals. This kind of perception is still evident among the young Ilubo who have refused to be tattooed because of fear of being labeled as criminals.
The use of Van Gennep’s schema has a theoretical value in studying the batek in relation to rites of passage. The movements or phases of the rites of separation, transition and incorporation cannot be treated in isolation, but taken as an aggregation of related symbolic acts in the life cycle of the Ilubo. The batek reflects physical or psychological changes or changes in status that take place, but also coincides with the chart of the individual’s progress toward social maturity. The batek, which pervades the social world of the Ilubo, indicates the Ilubo’s reintegration into the universe of their ancestors, and, more importantly, their community.

Tattoos as Visual Imagery and Talisman

Specific tattoo designs evoke visual imagery that are instantly understood by members of the mai’ngor class and the rest of the community as well. These images found on their body tattoos are cultural referents of particular ideas held by the community. An excellent example is the tattoos of the warrior.
The Ilubo were traditionally headhunters, and much of the imagery is concerned with headhunting. Lakay Tabbang $(70+)$ , has a tattoo of the gayaman nan banas (centipede-eating lizard) found at the back of his hand. He falls back on folk belief to provide an explanatory function for headhunting symbolism. In the ili, the centipedes are abundant, and people have observed how successful they are in catching their prey, the lizards. For him, the centipedes are the warriors successfully taking the enemy’s head. It is tattooed on the arm, because it is the “taker of the enemy.” He also proffers the information that among the attributes of lizards is that of being bulon ti mangayaw (friends of the warriors), since they are frequently encountered along the trails during headhunting forays.
Other warriors have special insignias, like the khaman (headaxe), to symbolize that the person has participated in headhunting. The bituwon (star), sorag (moon) and the pingao (bird) are expressions which draw from their environment. Jacob Angnganai, the old manbatek tells the story of the moon found on his nape. He said that the moon and the stars are the source of direct light in the dark, especially at night when they hold vigils before raiding the village.
The tattoos of the elders likewise reveal their social standing in the community. For instance, profusely tattooed men in the village are considered as pangat (respected elder) and are sometimes revered. Fully tattooed women are recognized as daughters of the kadangyan (the affluent class). However, for the Ilubo people, the practice of tattooing is not limited to a single class and one can be tattooed as long as the person is able to pay the manbatek’s fee for tattooing. Tattooing not only indicates their social standing, but is also an equalizing factor in the context of the painful rite of passage.
The Ilubo are aware of the collective force of their social group, and they express their awareness through the symbols of their tattoos. Being tattooed is a concrete realization of the sense of social unity of the members of the group.
For some old men and women, tattoos are talismans. The etchings on the human body of the figures of powerful beasts, esoteric patterns and religious formulas confer on the body special powers, such as strength and invulnerability.
The batek is believed to be an effective means of protection from any disease. At one point, there was an outbreak of cholera and malaria that killed many, including the Spaniards who went up to the mountains in the 19th century. The snakelike tattoo patterns on the skin were said to have protected the bearer from cholera and malaria. Some tattoo their throat because this is believed to cure goiter. For the warriors, the tattoos are their protection. Some report to have remained unharmed by the strike of the bolo or axe on their skin. The warriors believe that the tattoo marks, such as animal figures, give the wearer magical powers while in combat.

Tattoos and Aesthetics

The elaborateness of the body tattoos expresses an aesthetic component of batek.