Hello! Welcome to my website!
This website is about Melanesian Marks!
Teptok is about reviving what our melanesian women lost. Our bubus (grandmothers) are marked and we aren't. My mother went back to our village and many other villages in Papua New Guinea. The old bubus from those villages spoke of the first and last time they were marked. How the missionaries stopped the practice and how it was done. One bubu whom my mother met had only half of her body marked because the practice stopped before they could finish her. I am half-samoan and my grandfather was the one who stopped tatu in the GabaGaba village. One side of my family stopped tatu and the other side is bringing it back. My bubu at a young age was sent to boarding school in Melbourne, Australia. Our family has a design passed down to the women of our family. My great-great bubu had it, my great-bubu had it but my bubu did not. My great-bubu's whole body was marked. My bubu's skin was bare and no tatus were seen. My bubu's generation was where tradtional tatu in our village and many other villages had completely stopped. In 2009, my mother picked up the tools and taught herself how to tatu. In 2016, my bubu was marked by my mother with her mother's design. Her skin is no longer bare.