Tribal Tattoos

What many people think of as modern tribal tattoo designs are based on work worn by the Dyak tribespeople of Borneo. It was the loan of a notebook of this work, to LA artist Leo Zulueta by Ed Hardy, which seems to be the root action for the modern tribal tattoo movement. Zulueta’s reinterpretation of various elements of traditional Borenon designs caught on quickly in the punk and music scenes of the early 1990s, and was quickly adopted and imitated across the tattoo world.

The different art forms have been preserved somewhat, the history and meaning behind many of these symbols is unknown to the Western culture that now sports them.