At 106, Apo is the famous batok - Lifestyle tattoo artist on the cover of Vogue

Vogue Philippines breaks a taboo that is difficult to overcome: the protagonist of the April 2023 cover is a beautiful 106-year-old tattoo artist, the oldest person ever to appear on the prestigious fashion magazine.

, the centenarian also known as Maria Oggay, practices the age-old art of batok in the remote village of Buscalan.

Where, although it takes 12 hours from Manila, traveling the winding roads in the mountains of Kalinga, bypassing the debris of landslides and trucks emerging from the fog, thousands of visitors from all over the world arrive in search of her characteristic geometric

.

    In the photos published by Vogue,

, appears slender and elegant, with the crown of amber, lipstick, arms and décolleté covered with Kalinga symbols.

    Whang-Od's hand tattoos, with a bamboo stick, pomelo thorn, water and charcoal, were once the preserve of indigenous Butbut warriors.

She, the last mambabatok, learned the technique from her father at the age of 15 and over time perfected the age-old practice of hand tattooing "imprinting the symbols of the Kalinga tribe - which mean strength, courage and beauty - on the skin of thousands of people on a pilgrimage to Buscalan", writes Vogue Philippines in a post on social media.

    Now the art of batok lives on, in the Philippines and around the world, thanks to the descendants Apo Whang-Od trained and inspired.

    The Kalinga are traditionally a people of ferocious warriors, with a culture that has its roots in animism, and where the tattoo (batok) has always represented a way to communicate and disseminate values ​​within society: it was one of the most important rites of passage, a symbol of growth, evidence of the work of spirits on the body of the recipient.

For women in particular, tattooing marked the transition to the mature phase, but it was also a way to propitiate fertility, as well as a source of pride and decoration.