Apo Whang-od

Finally, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has NOMINATED Whang-od as a national artist. -Midland Courier August 14, 2016 Issue.......................


Up until today, traditional tattoo culture is still practiced in the Cordillera. Elderly men and women carry distinct tribal tattoos on their chests and arms, covering almost their entire body. In earlier times, girls would receive tattoos as they enter womanhood while men would get them for their achievements.These body arts are artistically made by a traditional hand tapping tattoo artist or the ‘mambabatok.’


Many of these mambabatoks have passed away, and the last living traditional artist who is still practicing the craft is Apo Whang-od from the Butbut tribe of Buscalan in Kalinga and has been featured in the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, the exhibition entitled "Tattoo: Ritual, identity, obsession, art" and at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Canada. (Just wow)

Many have been campaigning for Apo Whang-Od to be declared as Pambansang Alagad ng Sining for her role in preserving the dying art of traditional and cultural tattoo.