Language: Chinese
KumaBiBolo
Interviewed by Yaya , written by Jackie
Today we visit Bougouni , a city in southern Mali, to interview a tattooist who will show us how to tattoo gums? Mali is landlocked in West Africa, start from the Sahara Desert in the north, follow along the Niger River towards the south, cross the semi-arid savannahs in the center, all the way down to the south, where the rains are plentiful and the population is dense.
Yaya: “Hello, my sister, greetings to you.”
Aissata•Ba: “Greetings.”
Yaya: ” We visit you today to ask about tattooing gums.”
Aissata•Ba: ” Yes, please.”
Yaya: ” Could you tell us your name ? ”
Aissata•Bah: ” My name is Aissata•Bah.”
Yaya: ” Aissata•Bah. Where are you from? ”
Aissata•Bah: ” I come from Sahel Nioro, a small village in Kayes region, southwest of Mali.”
Yaya: ” Ah. You are from Fula ethnic group, to which branch do you belong? ”
Aissata•Ba: “It’s just Fula, We graze cows and sheep for the nobles and craftsmen of Fula.”
The Fula are nomadic, with a population of about thirty-eight million, and are widely dispersed from the Atlantic Ocean in West Africa, across Central Africa until the Red Sea in East Africa. There are three classes of Fula society, the nobility, the artisans (e.g., tanners), and the underclass (including shepherds, butchers).
Yaya: ” This gums tattooing, is it a tradition of your family, or? ”
Aissata•Ba: ” Not from my family.” , “When I was a child, the tanners came to our village in November and went from door to door to tattoo gums or lips for villagers. They stayed there for a month.”
Gums tattooing is practiced by the Fula people to show their ethnic identity, especially in Mopti region of central Mali, where the tanners travel to villages to serve the villagers, other crafts including tattooing lips or face, piercing nose or ears and dying feet soles. Usually they start from the end of October when the rain season stopped and harvesting was just finished.
Ultramarine powder, one of the ingredients to make tattoo ink
“Some of my sisters have their lips tattooed.” , “My adoptive mother have done it also. However, I didn’t want to do it. I couldn’t stand the pain.” Aissata•Ba said, “Every day I saw the tanners tattooing gums, then I said to myself, “Eh? If I learn the skill, one day won’t I be able to do it as well? ” “Although my home village is not far from the city, work is difficult to find and money is hard to earn. The materials for tattooing gums, the needles, threads, the colors made of peanuts and ultramarine powder, kola nuts to relieve pain, they all cost. So I found a way with other girls in the village. We cut some thorns from the acacia tree and tied some into a bundle with thread. Then we took turns lying down and helping each other to tattoo gums, and after a few more practices we made it.”
Yaya: “That’s right, hmm is ultramarine powder the kind we usually bleach our clothes?”
Aissata•Ba: “No, there’s a special ultramarine for tattooing gums with a lion on the package, which is rarely found in Bougouni market.”
Yaya: “I see. Have you ever been to Mopti (a region where the Fula people inhabit) ? I have heard that they are very skillful in tattooing .”
Aisata•Ba: “Yes, I have. I stayed at my uncle’s house, and I got some skills from my aunt. I’ve improved a lot.”
” In 2002, when I moved with my family to Bamako (the capital city) people asked me, “Hey lady, your teeth look so pretty when you smile. Who tattooed your gums?” I said, ” I used to ask someone tattoo it for me, but now I do it myself.”, I even bought a big mirror and make the colors by myself.”
When gums are well done, they do look good. The darker the gums, the whiter the teeth. Usually it’s women who get tattooed, men can do it too especially the one whose gums are red as donkey’s.
” In 2003, I moved again to Bougouni, right where I live now. ” Wherever I went, people would ask about my gums, I said I have done it myself and then slowly people came to me to get their gums tattooed. Then the word spreads and everyone in Bougouni knows that I do it for others.”
Yaya: ” Bamako was quite nice, why did you move to Bougouni? ”
Aissata•Ba: “In the capital, everything is expensive, my husband is a truck driver, he doesn’t earn enough to support the family, it’s cheaper to live here in Bougouni.”
Yaya: “Okay.” , ” Do you do any other work, besides tattooing gums? ”
Aissata•Ba: ” I pierce ears, paint feet soles, braid hair, embroider, host weddings, sell clothes and toiletries, all kinds of jobs, whatever it is, as long as I can earn a bit, I am willing to do it.”
In addition, Aissata told us that besides being beautiful, people are pleased to look at it. Tattooing gums also relieves headaches, prevents gums from bleeding and gets rid of bad breath.
Yaya: “Are tattooing gums, lips or face, and painting the feet soles etc. just for looks?”
Aissata•Ba: “Those are our tradition; the Fula people have been always practicing them, but now other ethnic groups started to do it, making it a fashion, a business. ”
“As for face tattooing, after a week when Fula children were born, on their birthday celebration, the parents ask face tattooists to make marks at the babies’ eye corners to drive away evil spirits and keep the babies safe. Also, when the children grow up, people will know that they belong to Fula, so their families are very proud them. ”
Yaya: ” Do you know how to tattoo face? ”
Aissata•Ba: ” I don’t work on this.