Using wooden sticks and a needle, an Indonesian tattooist based in Hamburg hand-taps designs into the skin, using a thousands-year-old technique.
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00:00To pierce the skin, the tattoo artist taps wooden sticks on a needle about a hundred times a minute.
00:08This technique is known as hand tapping.
00:11Ara Pendul of Indonesia uses a technique thousands of years old.
00:16Does it hurt? If so, how badly?
00:19And why would his customers subject themselves to it for hours?
00:25With a tattoo machine, it would only take ten minutes to half an hour to finish.
00:32But with hand tapping, you work with tools like a mallet,
00:38and you have to know exactly how to position it.
00:46In Hamburg, Alisa Samberg has decided to give hand tapping a try.
00:51She already has tattoos, but this is a new experience for her.
00:55I'm excited and nervous.
00:58Before the session, Pendul lays out his tools.
01:05His Indonesian customers generally tell him exactly what design they want.
01:10His customers are intrigued by the experience itself and by tattoos that are unique.
01:16The first thing they ask is, will it hurt?
01:21I tell them that hand tapping is less painful than machine tattooing.
01:26Tapping by hand pierces single points. The skin isn't torn.
01:32With the machine, it's different. Tearing the skin hurts more than hand tapping dots.
01:39To make sure the punches stay regular and the ink spreads evenly,
01:44the tattooist works with an assistant.
01:47The assistant, called the stretcher, keeps the skin pulled taut.
01:52At first, Alisa hardly feels any pain, until Pendul reaches the upper part of the design.
02:00It hurts. The closer we got to the hollow of my knee, the more it hurts, definitely.
02:07It hurts.
02:09Pendul learned his craft in Indonesia from indigenous artists.
02:14Hand tapping is thought to have been practiced for over 3,000 years on the island of Muntawai, among others.
02:22Tattooing was prohibited in Indonesia under Dutch colonial rule and in the 1980s under President Soeharto's regime.
02:30When Pendul started his first tattoo studio in Bali, it was anything but business as usual.
02:38In Indonesia in 1995 and 1996, people who got or had tattoos were generally considered criminals.
02:46I used to do tattooing under a bridge, but got chased away.
02:52The tattoo artist came to Hamburg following his heart.
02:56He met his future wife, Yana, in 2017 on Bali.
03:00Today, the couple and their daughter commute back and forth between Germany and Indonesia,
03:04and the two tattoo studios they operate.
03:11Back to Alisa's tattooing session nearly three hours later.
03:15She's got only a few more taps to go.
03:17Her tattoo was inspired by traditional motifs, but the design is an original by Pendul.
03:22He has no desire to appropriate indigenous culture.
03:25He creates every tattoo individually for each person.
03:29Another advantage of the traditional technique is that the skin heals faster afterwards.
03:38But most importantly, how does Alisa like the final result?
03:43I think it's really beautiful. Perfect.
03:49As an Indonesian, I'm proud to bring this culture to the world.
03:53I come from the island of Java, not from Mentawai or Borneo.
03:59But it still means a lot to me.
04:01I'm proud to be an Indonesian.
04:03I'm proud to be an Indonesian.
04:05I'm proud to be an Indonesian.
04:07I'm from the island of Java, not from Mentawai or Borneo.
04:11But it still makes me very proud that Indonesia has this tattoo tradition.
04:22With each of his tattoos, Pendul immortalises a piece of Indonesian culture on a person's skin,
04:28creating a small bridge between cultures that lasts a lifetime.