Tattoo Pattern

Flat piece of wood carved to leave a pattern in high relief. The block is inked and pressed onto the skin as a guide for the tattooing. A version of a pattern identified in Hose and Shelford as a Kayan tattoo design from the Rejang River known as "dog without a tail," a pattern "for the front and sides of thigh of women of high rank." The head and the sinuous body are similar to those in pattern CG180790-8161, with the same resemblance to a dog motif in beadwork illustrated by Ernest E. Haddon. A single design, for a man's forearm or thigh. From a tatu-block in the Sarawak Museum.