Berber Tattooing: in Morocco's Middle Atlas

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As Berber transhumance flourished and the ostracism between clans diminished, safety prevailed, and marriages between Berbers from different origins became normality. Taguelmane had an opposite experience with tattoos: she was forced by her mother to get one at a young age. The tattoos are crafted by applying a paste to the skin and delicately tapping it with a needle to form the design. This book of previously unpublished work, collected nearly thirty years ago, is a tribute to the art of tattoos, tradition, family, and love. The symbols can, among others, have meanings related to strength, energy, fertility, healing, and protection from envy.

This book of previously unpublished work, collected nearly thirty years ago is a tribute, to the art of tattoo, to tradition, to family and to love.To this day, it is said that the Amazigh people could count among more than 30 million in North Africa, representing a significant portion of the populations of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Thus, tattoos have become geometric shapes and magic signs that protect man from the evil of nature, protect him from envy and keep him away from poverty, calamities and bad fate. Tattooing is one of the oldest rituals in Berber culture, whose origins date back to the pre-Islamic period. Arts and culture are huge in the Berber communities, and as you travel through Morocco you will begin to recognise the arts of the various tribal areas.

Sensitively captured in drawings from the time, by Aia Leu, the faces of the Berber women speak of a tribal culture that was fast disappearing, even then. Therapeutic function: for the Berbers Tattoos have a therapeutic function, since they protect the human being against organic and psychological ailments and protect them from the dangers of acute epidemics and nature. My eyes scanned the room and the glittering crowd within it and I saw a very tall, slim, young man looking at me from the opposite end.

Amazigh (Berber) women tattooed their faces, feet, arms, and other body parts for beauty, health, and protection. My friend was blown away when he saw his grandmother and aunties reflected in the images and sketches of Berber women’s leg tattoos.

Ritual and tribal music is heard at festivals, as well as at markets, weddings and any celebrations. However, Brousse said her work is just a “modest study, neither exhaustive, historic nor comparative.Besides, tattoos are symbols that expresses identity, sexuality, ethnicity and culture of human being, and distinctly distinguishes people of the world. There is no exact date, but what is known is that the Berber tribes, since the ancient drawings that were found in the caves, and based on some books and sources that talked about tattoos in the Berber tribes, it dates back to thousands of years," says Mohamed Es-Semmar, a historian.