National Geographic Photo Gallery: Tattoos, Piercings, and Other Body ArtPhotographer: Chris Rainer

Click to enlarge this photograph of Maori gang members in New Zealand. Their tattoos are seen as signs of black power. Maori Gang Members, New Zealand
The Maori culture has a long tradition of tattooing, which dated back centuries until the Europeans outlawed it in the 1800s. These Auckland men belong to the anti-European Black Power Group. Their tattoos are a combination of traditional Maori tattoo art, called moko, and symbols picked up from the U.S. Black Power movement of the 1960s.

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Click to view photograph of a scarred man from Burkina Faso Click to view a photograph of a tattooed man at the Burning Man Festival, Nevada. Click to see a photograph of tattooed Maori gang members, New Zealand
 Click to view a photograph of a tattooed yakuza gang member, Japan. Click to view a photograph of tattooed ''modern primitives'' in California. Click to view a photograph of tattooed twin Cuna Indians, Panama. Click to view a photograph of a tattooed Coptic Christian woman, Ethiopia. Click to view a photograph of a tattooed Maori Chief, New Zealand. Click to view a photograph of a Mursi woman with face markings and a lip plate in Ethiopia. Click to view a photograph of nude women with temporary tattoos bathing in Brazil. Click to view a photograph of a nude Samoan man with tribal tattooing.
Click here to learn about photographer Chris Rainier. Click here for a look at the book ''National Geographic Photographs: Then and Now.'' Click here for Web links on tattoos, piercings, and other body art Credits for National Geographic's tattoos, piercings, and body markings gallery