According to Simon Fraser Universitys Bill Reid Centre for Northwest Coast Art Studies, the Haida practised tattooing for generations before European contact. The tattoo marks themselves were indicative of status, spiritual devotion and decoration, the centre explains on its website.

Individuals expressed their part in a social unit, a moiety, or a lineage through body art and adornment. In this sense, tattoos put a persons identity and spiritual connections on display through the use of crest figures and/or guardian spirits.

The designs used for tattooing were usually acquired through heredity, and crests of the bearer were dependent on their lineage.

A tattoo kit consisted of five cedar batons for skin-pricking, a lump of magnetite for pigment, a paint-grinding stone and a set of cedar brushes that were elaborately carved with crest figures.

Originally, sharp thorns, fish spines or bones were used for tattooing, the centre explains.

Later, as copper became more readily available, the tattooing implements were made of the metal and featured three needle points the middle point of the three being the longest which were attached to a handle. The handles were made of flat strips of ivory or bone, or from thin strips of wood that were of various widths.

Pigments that left a bluish tint on the skin were said to have been made from the charcoal of alder or buckbrush. Black pigment was made of magnetite, gunpowder, India ink or powdered charcoal. Red pigment was said to be made from Chinese vermilion or hematite.

First, the design was drawn onto the person to be tattooed in a dark pigment. The design would then be pricked in with the needles, and then more pigment would be rubbed into the design in order to achieve the desired hue.

Rarely did the chiefs do the tattooing themselves; instead, they hired skilled tattoo artists to perform the work. For men, tattoos were generally placed on the chest, the upper back between the shoulders, upper and lower arms, and the front of thighs and lower legs. For women, the chest, the shoulders, the forearms, hands and lower leg were tattooed.

When a chief held a potlatch he would select individuals to be honoured with tattoos, which would be unveiled during a dance at the potlatch. Even little kids were invited to this process but they werent tattooed until they stopped growing. The family would pay in blankets, and paint designs on their kids, a way of preparing them to go through the ceremony as they got older.

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Haida used tattoos to express status, spirituality