‘Best Vogue cover ever. Bravo’
An Indigenous tattooist has gone viral after becoming the cover-star of Vogue’s latest cover – age 106.
The fashion bible released its April issue on Friday, featuring centenarian Kalinga woman, Apo Whang-Od, also known as Maria Oggay.
She is hailed as the Philippines’ oldest traditional tattoo artist, or ‘mambatok’.
Whang-Od, from the small mountain village of Buscalan, has become famous for mastering a 1,000-year-old “batok” tattooing technique, which uses a traditional tapping method utilising charcoal soot and a sharp stick. She has 21.4k followers on Instagram.
The artist learned the technique from her dad, age 16, the magazine noted.
In a tweet, Vogue Philippines wrote: “Apo Maria ‘Whang-Od’ Oggay symbolises the strength and beauty of the Filipino spirit.
“Heralded as the last mambabatok of her generation, she has imprinted the symbols of the Kalinga tribe signifying strength, bravery & beauty on the skin.”
Vogue said Whang-Od’s tattooing had attracted waves of tourists to visit the Philippines, to get one of her designs, and has inspired a new generation of batok artists in the Philippines and US.
She has also passed down her skills to her grandnieces, Elyang Wigan and Grace Palicas, whom she has trained in the artform for several years.
“When visitors come from far away,” Whang-Od told Vogue in the Butbut language, “I will give them the tatak Buscalan, tatak Kalinga for as long as my eyes can see.”
Whang-Od is the face of Vogue Philippines’ Beauty issue, which “also highlights the female gaze”.
Whang-Od shared the cover on her Instagram account, where it gained 10k likes and 166 comments.
One person wrote: “Wow, finally a vogue cover worth buying! I hope I can find it here in the UK so beautiful and inspiring.”
Vogue’s cover-shoot tweet, meanwhile, has gone viral, with more than 3.5m viewing it.
One Twitter user posted: “This is the best Vogue PH cover so far.”
“Best Vogue cover ever. Bravo!” echoed another.,
Another commenter said the cover was “badass”, before tweeting: “I don’t know how you all are going to top this!”
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