The Mathematical Tourist Ma. Louise Antonette N.
De las Peñas, Editor
Enigmatic Geometric
Tattoos of the
Butbut of Kalinga,
Philippines
MA. LOUISE ANTONETTE N. DE LAS PEÑAS AND
ANALYN SALVADOR-AMORES
Does your hometown have any mathematical tourist
attractions such as statues, plaques, graves, the cafe´
where the famous conjecture was made, the desk where
the famous initials are scratched, birthplaces, houses, or
memorials? Have you encountered a mathematical sight
on your travels? If so, we invite you to submit an essay to
this column. Be sure to include a picture, a description
of its mathematical significance, and either a map or
directions so that others may follow in your tracks.
â Submissions should be uploaded to http://tmin.edmgr.com or
sent directly to Ma. Louise Antonette N. De Las Peñas,
mathtourist1@gmail.com
here is an outpouring of local and foreign tourists
T flocking to the remote village of Buscalan in
Tinglayan, Southern Kalinga, a mountainous region
of the Cordillera located in Northern Luzon, Philippines.
The main purpose of their visit is to get batók—traditional
tattoos, which are permanent inscriptions embedded in the
skin—from Whang-ud Oggay, the ninety-year-old tattoo
practitioner whose story has left a mark on everyone who
has heard it. To reach the village of Whang-ud, you will
have to undertake an arduous journey: ten hours from
Metro Manila (capital region of the Philippines) to Bontoc,
three hours from Bontoc to Kalinga, one hour by motor-
bike, and another hour of trekking to reach the village of
Buscalan, where the Butbut community reside (see Fig-
ure 1 for a map).
But visitors find it worth the trip: the tattooing of small
designs on their legs, backs, arms, and wrists is done in less
than an hour, and they bring the tattoos back to the cities as
souvenirs of another culture, as representations of them-
selves. The batók of the Butbut are known for their
elaborate symmetric designs, which include geometric
patterns and friezes. In the village of Buscalan and in other
Butbut communities in Tinglayan such as Bugnay, Butbut
proper, Lokkong, and Ngibat, you may find elders who are
tattooed with traditional designs. Tattooing thrives only in
the village of Buscalan, however, where younger appren-
tices are mentored by Whang-ud. It is an
unforgettable experience to witness the tattooing process
and catch a glimpse of the batók on the bodies of the
Butbut, which serve as a living testament to one of the
oldest cultural tattooing practices in the world.
Origins
The practice of tattooing in Southeast Asia goes back at two
millennia, and it was a widespread practice during the
sixteenth century. In the Philippines, tattooing was a
common practice among the major warrior groups of the
Cordillera, which include the Kalinga, the indigenous
people from Kalinga province. Headhunting and tattooing
were more extensively practiced during the Spanish occu-
pation (1521–1898) than in the period of the American
colonizers that followed (Krieger 1926). Foreign ethnog-
raphers reinforced the myth that tattooing was done
primarily or even solely in connection with the practice of
headhunting. The criminalization of headhunting by the
American colonial government had repercussions on tat-
tooing practice.
Headhunting is only one of the many reasons why the
Kalinga tattoo themselves (Salvador-Amores 2002, 2013).
Batók function as painful rites of passage, bodily adorn-
ments (clothing), talismans against malevolent forces,
marks of courage (such as for a Kalinga warrior after a
Ó 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00283-018-09864-6
Figure 1. Map of the Cordillera region, Northern Luzon Philippines. Whang-ud resides in the remote village of Buscalan in
Tinglayan (map by AV Salvador-Amores and Denes Dasco).
successful military expedition), visible markers of religious
and political affiliations, and symbols of status or indicators
of affluence. Batók continue to be indicative of the high
social standing of the warrior class and indicate wealth and
prestige for both men and women. Today, the Whang-ud
phenomenon has led to increased interest in the meaning
of tattoos and a revival of tattooing itself.
The word Batók or batek (the general term for the tat-
toos in the Cordillera region) is derived from the sound of
the tapping of a stick on the tattoo instrument that pierces
the skin. The word tek (tik) means to ‘‘hit slowly.’’ In the
past, tattooing was a specialist activity practiced by men. It
was usually a male manbatok (the prefix man indicates an
individual who does batok) who tattooed the young men
and women in the village; female tattoo practitioners were
very rare. Today, however, you will find female tattooists in
the village of Buscalan, including Whang-ud, who has
gained prominence as the oldest traditional indigenous
Cordillera tattoo artist.
The Tattooing Process
Today, the traditional hand-tapping technique of creating
tattoos persists among the Butbut. The principal tattoo
instrument used to produce the design is called the gisi, of
which there are two kinds. One is a light stick with a lemon
thorn inserted at the tip. The other is made of buffalo horn
bent by heating it over a fire with four steel needles
attached with a thread at the tip. The lemon thorn is dipped
into an ink made of fine charcoal powder mixed with water
THE MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER
and plant dyes. The gisi is hand-tapped using a pat-ik (light
wooden stick), so that the lemon thorn pierces the skin
(Figure 2). Whang-ud, for instance, has explained that she
prefers the lemon thorn to needles, because the strong
lemon scent drives away the ayan (malevolent spirits),
which can interfere with her tattooing. Further, since the
chara (blood) of the tattoo attracts the ayan, the thorn
plays a role in keeping those spirits away.
Needles, on the other hand, are used when a tattoo
design is ‘‘blackened,’’ or re-inked, to achieve the black or
shaded part of the tattoo motif. It is faster to work with the
lemon thorn than with the needle, which requires repeated
tapping to allow the ink to penetrate deeply into the skin.
The tapping of the lemon thorn achieves the necessary
depth for piercing the skin but results in greater pain for the
person receiving the tattoo.
To prepare the first designs on the skin, Whang-ud uses
the uyot, a dried rice stalk bent into a triangle and used as a
stencil for marking tattoo patterns (Figure 3). One side of
the uyot is dipped in the ink and pressed lightly on the skin
before the designs are permanently tattooed with the
lemon thorn. The uyot is also used by Whang-ud to scale
and measure the tattoo patterns on the skin (Figure 4). To
make sure that the designs are symmetric, Whang-ud uses
the lemon thorn to reinforce the measurement on the lines.
She dips the lemon thorn in the ink, and holding it aslant,
uses it as a stamp, working as with a stencil to make marks
from one point to another in completing a linear tattoo
motif (Figure 5). In making designs that are symmetric with

Figure 2. Whang-ud hand-tapping the centipede design into
a traveler’s shoulder. Shown is the gisi, a stick with lemon
thorn, the main instrument used.
Figure 3. Whang-ud uses the uyot, a dried rice stalk bent into
a triangle as a stencil for marking tattoo patterns.
respect to a person’s spine, the lemon thorn is also used
like a perpendicular bisector. At times, Whang-ud uses
ballpoint pens to draw the more figurative tattoo patterns.
Tattoo Motifs and Designs
The traditional tattoo designs of the Butbut of Southern
Kalinga share similar geometric patterns to those of the
Kalinga region in general. Traditionally, these designs were
tattooed on the backs of hands, on the lower and upper
arms, on the shoulders, on the face, chest, back, and legs,
each with its own symbolism and significance. The Butbut
describe and classify tattoos as those of the past (whatok sa
awi) and those of the present (whatok sa sana). The former
include those used on the elders, where the pain of the
procedure is justified by the significance of the tattoos in
attesting to great achievement, wealth, or status. Profusely
tattooed elders are much respected and revered in the
community. Chanting during tattooing contributes to the
magical potency and efficacy of the tattoos as protection
from malevolent spirits. The whatok sa sana include styl-
ized variants of the traditional designs, influenced by the
advent of tourists arriving in Buscalan. Such tattoos vary,
Figure 4. The uyot is also used by Whang-ud to scale and
measure the tattoo patterns on the skin.
depending on the artist and the subject’s tolerance for pain,
but most of them are geometric in nature, reflecting the
concepts of symmetry and unity, the characteristics of the
traditional tattoos for which the Butbut are known.
Traditional Tattoos of Men
The tattoos found on the lower and upper arms of men are
three parallel lines that coil around the arm, called the
pinaliid or binulibud. These markings connote that the
man has participated in headhunting forays and has taken a
head. On their chests, the tattoo called whiing or bikking
includes a set of parallel lines (Figure 6a). There is also the
centipede (gayaman), snake (tabwhad), snakeskin (tin-
ulipao), and axe blade (sinawit) designs that serve as a
talisman. The tinulipao, for example, serves as armor
against enemy attack; it is camouflage for the warrior,
making him invisible to his enemies. The tattoo on the back
(dakag) is earned when a warrior successfully kills an
enemy but retreats while the battle is still raging and his
opponents are winning (Figure 6b). A man is revered if he
has both the whiing and the dakag.
Traditional Tattoos of Women
The Butbut women are tattooed from the forearms to the
upper arms, the backs of their hands, on the shoulder
blades, and in some cases on the throat and the breasts.
They have tattoos on their faces, with x-marks and two
parallel lines tattooed on their cheeks and on the forehead.
The x-marks are believed to protect pregnant women from
malevolent spirits. Found on the lower and upper arms of
women are various tattoo motifs that are separated by lines
(chuyos) that stretch vertically.
Some of the motifs have significant meaning for the
Butbut women. The fern plant (inam-am) is a symbolic
indication that a woman is able to conceive. The motif is
based on the frond of a fern, which the elders say prevents
stillbirth. This tattoo makes a woman fertile, strong, heal-
thy, and able to bear children. The centipede (gayaman) is
believed to bring health and long life to an expectant
mother. The hourglass (tinatalaaw) or rice mortar (lusong)
signifies the wealth and affluence of the family to which the
woman belongs. Some Butbut women also refer to these
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Figure 5. Whang-ud uses the lemon thorn to reinforce
measurement on the lines.
tattoo designs as bundles of rice that signify abundance.
See Figure 7 for women exhibiting traditional tattoos.
Friezes and Other Repetitive Patterns
The Butbut explain that the geometric motifs that make up
a traditional tattoo design are ‘‘related to each other,’’ for
they appear in repetitions, such as the hexagons that make
up the snakeskin (tinulipao) or snake’s belly (chillag),
rhombuses that form the hourglass (tinatalaaw), marked
triangles forming the coiled snake (inong-oo), and the three
short parallel segments that signify rain (inud-uchan).
There are also figurative patterns consisting of geometric
Figure 6. (a) Lakay Whiig earned the whiing chest tattoo after fighting against the Japanese forces in World War II; (b) dakag
tattoo that shows traditional friezes.
THE MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER
motifs in stylized representations, such as a ladder (inar-
archan), centipede (gayaman), fern (inam-am, inalapat,
nilawhat, binunga), pig’s hind legs (tibul), rice bundle
(sinwhuto or panyat), rice mortar (lusong), eagle (tulayan),
and frog (tokak). In Figure 8 we present some of the tra-
ditional tattoo designs.
Most of the traditional Butbut patterns consist of a motif
(or combination of motifs) that is tattooed repeatedly in
one direction in the skin, forming a pattern resembling a
wallpaper border or narrow band. We call such a pattern a
one-dimensional frieze. It is a geometric fact that there are
only four types of isometry, or rigid motion, of the plane
onto itself. These are translation, rotation (about a point),
reflection (about a line), and glide reflection (reflection in a
line, followed by a translation in a direction parallel to the
line). A frieze admits one of only seven different combi-
nations of these isometries. There are only seven types of
one-dimensional frieze, classified according to admissible
isometries (Washburn and Crowe 1988). In Table 1 and
Figure 9 we give examples of Butbut tattoos representing
the seven friezes. The symmetry groups are described using
the nomenclature for frieze groups given in (Schattschnei-
der 2008). It is said that Whang-ud is able to create the
frieze tattoos with precision, with the repeated motifs close
to each other, conforming to the shape of the person’s
body.
Butbut friezes, aside from their cultural significance,
remain to this day a favorite tattoo choice of tourists for
aesthetic reasons. In Figure 11 we show tourists lining up
to get a tattoo from Whang-ud, selecting from a menu of
friezes (Figure 10).
Figure 7. Elderly women of Tinglayan, Kalinga (Apo Ibyao, Chumanyag, and Milagring) showing traditional tattoos including
inam-am, tinulipao, and gayaman.
Other Kalinga Artifacts
The geometric forms found on the skin of Butbut also
extend to other objects of Kalinga material culture. The
different tattoo patterns such as the chung-it (x-marks),
sinagkikao (alternating lines), inam-am, and tinulipao,
among others, are likewise manifested in the Kalinga kain
(wrap-around skirt), lime containers, bamboo flutes, and
whanga (clay pot). The Butbut create their designs on the
lid of the pot with tattoo motifs by means of idiid, pressing
a stencil with the motif on the surface of the pot to make it
whayyu (beautiful). In Northern Kalinga, a rice container
made of clay with a cover is decorated with a variety of
tattoo motifs. Such objects with tattoo patterns can be seen
at the Museo Kordilyera, the ethnographic museum of the
University of the Philippines Baguio, Northern Luzon
(Figure 12).
Continuing the Kalinga Tattoo Tradition
The Philippine National Commission for Culture and the
Arts (NCCA) conferred on Apo Whang-ud, Kalinga’s oldest
living tattoo artist, the Dangal ng Haraya Pamanang
Bayan (Intangible Cultural Heritage) award in June 2018
for promoting and preserving the batók tattoo tradition,
giving greater attention and awareness to Philippine tradi-
tional art practices and cultural heritage. The artistry of
Whang-ud’s work reflects Kalinga’s culture and ancestry,
which is a treasure that should be preserved. At present,
Whang-ud mentors young women and men in the
Ó 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
Figure 8. Traditional Butbut tattoos.

Table 1. Butbut friezes representing seven frieze patterns

Frieze Group Type Symmetries Present in Frieze Tattoo Meaning
11 translation fern plant (inalapat)
1g glide reflection, translation snake (tabwhad)
12 1808 rotation, translation hourglass (tinatalaaw)
m1 reflection in the vertical axis, translation alternating lines (sinagkikao)
1m reflection in the horizontal axis, glide reflection, translation centipede (ginay-gayaman)
mg reflection in the vertical axis, glide reflection, 1808 rotation, translation snakeskin (tinulipao)
mm reflections in the vertical and horizontal axes, 1808 rotation, glide reflection, translation criss-cross (sina-sao)

THE MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER

Figure 9. Butbut tattoos corresponding to the seven friezes.

Figure 10. Menu of friezes in the tattoo area in Buscalan.

Figure 12. Kalinga clay pot and bamboo flute with patterns
similar to skin tattoos.

community in the manbabatok Kalinga tradition of tattoo-

ing. Through Whang-ud and her students, there is hope for
the continuity of the tattoo tradition, in which tattoos may
be viewed not merely as graphic decorations but as
emblems with deep cultural meaning.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the people of Butbut in
Tinglayan, Kalinga, for their warmth and hospitality. The
photographs were taken by Analyn Salvador-Amores dur-
Figure 11. Tourists making a selection from the menu of
ing her anthropological fieldwork in Kalinga. The
friezes while waiting their turn to be tattooed.
illustrations of traditional tattoos of the Butbut are based on

Ó 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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