Whang-od

Whang-od Oggay (born February 17, 1917), also known as Maria Oggay, is a Filipino tattoo artist
from Buscalan, Tinglayan, Kalinga, Philippines. She is often described as the "last" and oldest
mambabatok (traditional Kalinga tattooist) and is part of the Butbut people of the larger Kalinga
ethnic group.
She has been tattooing headhunters and women of the indigenous people of Butbut in Buscalan,
Kalinga, since she was 15 years old, but the Butbut warriors who used to earn tattoos by protecting
villages or killing enemies no longer exist. Despite this, Whang-od continues to practice her
traditional art form on tourists visiting Buscalan. As a traditional Kalinga tattooist or mambabatok,
she did fortune telling and chants while doing tattoos. Every design she creates contains symbolic
meanings specific to the mambabatok culture.
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) conferred on Whang-od the prestigious
Dangal ng Haraya Award at Tabuk, the capital of Whang-od's ethnic province of Kalinga, in 2018.
She was nominated for the National Living Treasures Award (Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan) in 2017.
Her nomination is still being processed by the NCCA.