A 106-year-old tattoo artist has become Vogue’s oldest-ever cover model, earning praise from celebrities worldwide. Apo Whang-Od of the Philippines is known for preserving the ancient art form of batok, which entails tattooing the skin by hand with a thorn attached to bamboo dipped in natural dyes. “Apo Maria ‘Whang-Od’ Oggay represents the strength and beauty of the Filipino spirit,” read the caption on Vogue PH.
“Hailed as the last’mambabatok’ of her generation, she has imprinted the Kalinga tribe’s symbols of strength, bravery, and beauty on the skin of thousands of pilgrims to Buscalan,” the caption continued. Bea Valdes, the magazine’s CEO, stated that having Whang-Od on the front cover was a no-brainer. “We felt she embodied our ideals of what is lovely about Filipino culture.”
We believe that the concept of beauty must evolve to include a diverse range of faces and forms. “What we hope to talk about is the beauty of humanity,” she told The Guardian. According to the magazine, Batok tattoos are worn by men to represent bravery and by women to show beauty. “(Batok) meant being minted as a headhunting warrior for men.”
A biking, a chest tattoo with patterns that crawled up the shoulders and down the arms, could take days to complete and cost the equivalent of a large pig or several kilos of rice. “Women were tattooed for a variety of reasons, the most common of which were fertility and beautification,” it stated. “The tattooed elder women of Kalinga frequently say that when they die, their beads and gold cannot accompany them to the afterlife.”
“All they have are the markings on their bodies,” Vogue added. Award-winning actress Halle Berry, as well as supermodels Naomi Campbell and Gigi Hadid, appear to be awestruck by the tattooist. “This is true beauty,” Berry wrote. Whang-Od was also praised by actors Mario Lopez and Naomi Campbell, as well as fashion designer Law Roach.