Tattoos as a Means of Protection among Women? The Astonishing Case of the Derung in China and the Croats in Dalmatia and Bosnia

Tattoos have a long tradition of use around the world. The practice of tattooing has been recorded since the early phases of mankind and has been used for different purposes at different times. While the decision to obtain a tattoo is typically a voluntary act to express an individual's aesthetic through ink, two historical instances suggest that tattoos served the specific purpose of protection. Astonishingly, these practices occurred in vastly different geographical regions: among the Derung in Yunnan, China, and among Croats in Dalmatia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, both share something in common: both groups have a tradition of considering tattoos as signs of protection from being attacked and to preserve their ethnic identity; this tradition has been practiced until the 20th century, alongside enjoying an abundance of  documentation. 

The Derung are one of the smallest ethnicities by population in China and the smallest in the southwestern province of Yunnan. Linguistically, Derung is a Nuic language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Economically, the Derung lifestyle was characterised by subsistence farming in Gongshan, which constitutes one of the most remote regions in Yunnan before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Due to their perceived  primitiveness by neighbouring peoples and their lack of defence mechanisms, the Derung were often the target of slavery. Politically, they stood under the governance of the Weixi and Cawarong chieftains to whom they had to pay tributes, making life for the Derung extremely difficult. When these masters required slaves, they would go into the mountains and abduct local Derung people. Consequently, the practice of tattooing the faces of women is suspected to be connected to this struggle. One theory suggests that the tattooing of Derung girls would make them unattractive to slave hunters. China Daily writes: ‘The practice began about 300 years ago, when Tibet's landlords extended their power into the Dulong region and cruelly exploited the people living there. […] So, Derung women started tattooing their faces to make them look like ghosts and, consequently, undesirable to the landlords’. According to this approach, tattoos would not have an aesthetic reason, but they would serve as a defence mechanism to appear undesirable to potential slaveholders. Furthermore, tattoos assisted in the identification of Derung slaves who had been forcefully abducted. 

Other theories suggest that tattoos have been part of the Derung identity since ancient times because the Derung believed that a soul would not leave the woman’s body after death if she were not tattooed. However, these claims remain contested, and a lack of understanding persists regarding the origins of the practice among the Derung. This lack of understanding is evidenced by the Derung themselves, who do not agree on the specific origins of their practice. Derung tattoo artist Qi Nai, who died in 2014, reported that she did not believe that Derung tattoos held any specific meaning. Conversely, Wang Qingyuan, a tattoo artist from Beijing, believes the tattoos were intended to prevent girls from being kidnapped; thus, according to Wang, ‘the facial tattoos […] record the history of misery’. 

The Derung method of tattooing consisted of using ‘a piece of thorn branch from a local plant’, while the colours resulted from the fabrication of  ‘a mixture of water and the ashes of burned pine trees’. A short wooden stick was used  ‘to hit the thorn plant to make it stab the face lightly’. The patterns are often said to resemble butterflies or butterfly-like figures, but Wang believes this is merely ’because they are symmetrical’. There are claims that the Derung possessed tattoos during the Nanzhao era - a period in which a tribal-based kingdom ruled over parts which are mostly in modern-day northern Yunnan, c. 738–902, but this is not well-attested as old chronicles lacked precision. It remains unknown whether the king of Nanzhao was ethnic Yi or Bai. Finally, it is unlikely that an ethnic group which had virtually no contact with the outside world before 1949, which is still living in difficult-to-reach areas today, would forget a religious spiritual meaning informing the practice if one had existed.

While the origins of the Derung tattoos remain a mystery, there are diverse reports on the age at which girls were tattooed. Huo-Tao and Lim write that ‘it is known that women of the Derung People get tattoos from the age of 7 to 8’. However, a Beijing Review article mentions that ‘Dong Chunlian, born in 1957, got hers in 1970 at the age of 13. She is the last Derung woman to have gotten facial tattoos’. In fact, most Derung women cannot remember how old they were when they were tattooed, and many elderly Derung do not know their exact age. During the Cultural Revolution, the practice of face tattoos was prohibited as it was considered a feudal relic. Nowadays, only a few tattooed women remain; with their passing, the living heritage of Derung facial tattoos could disappear.

Tattoos as a means of protection were also found in Europe among ethnic Croatian Catholic women who lived in areas under Ottoman rule-areas which correspond today with the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Matija Krivošić reports: ‘Sicanje tattoos were used by Catholic women to identify themselves as Catholics and thus save themselves from forced marriages, abduction into the harem, and rape during the Ottoman period. This method of tattooing in our country arose during the Ottoman occupation of medieval Bosnia and continued to be practiced extensively until the end of the Second World War’. This practice was also common in parts of Dalmatia, in modern-day Croatia, and thus within the territory of the modern European Union.

Barabas points out that tattooing in the Balkans existed long before Ottoman rule, but was considered a means of protection during Ottoman rule in the area from the 16th century onwards. Furthermore, she notes: ‘The motifs were mostly specific to local folklore, heavily relying on the symbolism of nature, a reinterpretation of the cross might be the only Christian symbol present (although some researchers, including Truhelka, attract attention to the pre-Christian origin of the symbol)’. The website “Traditional Croatian Tattoos” suggests that: ‘The cross, circle, and line form the foundation of every ornament in traditional Croatian tattooing’. The tattoos were inked on arms, hands, the forehead, and other body parts, making them especially visible. Furthermore, the Atlas Obscura remarks: ‘Using needles and a mixture of soot, spit, honey, and breast milk, the tattooing tradition covered the hands, chest, and sometimes forehead with deeply symbolic patterns’.

Girls were usually tattooed before or during early puberty, with records suggesting the practice of tattooing began as early as the age of 10 or 13. Unlike the Derung, tattoos among Croatians were not only reserved for women. Men were also tattooed, though women possessed a larger repertoire of designs and motifs, while men in Bosnia had fewer choices. In certain regions of Dalmatia, tattoos were only worn by women. Today, Croatian women sometimes deliberately choose to receive a Sicanje tattoo as an expression of Croatian Catholic heritage and as a means to showcase their identity. However, the traditional motivation for tattooing is no longer present. These tattoos are now sometimes considered talismans or symbols of protection rather than a means to protect the group from foreign invasion or influence. 

In sum, the Derung in China and the Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia both utilised tattoos as a means of protection. For the Derung, the practice served as protection from slavehood; for the Croats, it was considered a protection of faith. In both cases, tattoos were placed visibly on the body. The Derung used facial tattoos, while Croats applied them mainly to the arms, hands, and forehead, though the exact position of a certain tattoo depended on which design ought to be inked. In both cultures, a mythical, spiritual function is assumed in addition to the protective function. Similarly, geometric symbols and symmetries play a crucial role in the tattoo art of both peoples. However, a major difference remains: while some Croatian women still choose to ink traditional symbols or motifs, modern Derung women do not wear tattoos.  The heritage of Derung tattoos, therefore, runs the risk of being known only through oral narratives and documentation in the coming decades.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author(s) alone and do not necessarily reflect those of European Guanxi.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Timo Schmitz holds an MA in Philosophy and Political Science from Trier University, where he is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy. His academic interests include ancient Greek philosophy, the Juche ideology of the DPRK (North Korea), and Chinese ethnic minorities. Concerning Chinese minorities, Schmitz especially focusses on Tibeto-Burman, Tai-Kadai, and Austroasiatic peoples who live in Southern and Southwestern China. He pursues an intercultural approach to promote dialogue and build bridges and criticizes the ongoing division between East and West.

This article was edited by Kai Moreno Momiejo and Mateusz Tokarz.

Featured Image: It's an old dance of Dulong people  / Free for us / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.