The maori tattoo designs have a very rich and powerful culture carried with them all the way to the present times. The Maoris were the natives of New Zealand and were known for their intricate facial designs that were known as “moko” or facial tattoos. What makes this design different from the ones we know of today is that the maori tattoo designs are all over the face and not just merely on the shoulder and arms. The people long before used their tattoos as their symbols, their signatures, and their identities everyday up to the coming of the Europeans.

The natives described the birth of the Maori moko through a myth or legend. They preserved the history of their facial tattooing rituals until such time that their land was discovered by the Europeans. Modernization began to unfold and the tradition of the moko began to deteriorate. But we see how strong their culture is with regards to their facial tattoos when the men used the moko of their chief as a way of signing an agreement with the foreigners. Hence, it was known as an artistic form of writing that continued up to the 1800s.
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