Roberto Gemori - The Polynesian Tattoo Handbook

T he first thing to know when writing a name in Polynesian style is that Polynesian people didn't have written alphabets.There are no letters used by Polynesian languages so another way must be found to integrate letters from existing alphabets into a Polynesian design. At Tattoo Tribes we decided to create the letters by composing them from basic elements that actually belong to Polynesian cultures, specifically chosen for their shape and meaning: the koru and the eye of the tiki; they are both extensively explained in chapter 3.There are no fixed shapes and there are no standard designs that can't be varied and modified to your liking; this allows you to create ANY shape and ANY alphabet, just by means of this pair of symbols, more easily when using their stylized version.Koru are particularly fit for creating shapes out of other elements and they actually serve this purpose in many Maori designs. On this account, we call this type of writing Maorigrams. The best integration is obtained by leaving the letters as empty spaces inside a design that can be both solid colour or filled with traditional motifs. The latter solution gives the best aesthetical results as it can be seen in the following latin alphabet where a sample for the plain letter is on the left and the corresponding "cut-out" version with traditional-like fillings, is on the right.