Batok: The exploration of Indigenous Filipino tattooing as a resistive collective occupation

Previous research on tattooing from an occupational science perspective has considered European tattooing and its engagement and implication on the individual (Kay & Brewis, 2017). However, little focus has been explored on indigenous tattooing practices and its meaning among all members of the ceremony. Framed in theories of Collective Occupation (Ramugondo & Kronenberg, 2015), Doing, Being, Becoming, and Belonging (Wilcock, 2002), this qualitative research explores how batok is experienced by the person and their identified community.

A phenomenological approach was utilized to explore the meaning of batok. Three Filipino participants who had participated in a batok ceremony and received a batok tattoo, and four family or community members identified by the individual were interviewed. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Three themes were identified: Kapwa, Revealing One’s Batok, and Decolonization and Reclamation as a Cultural Practice. These themes are situated in the lens of a collective occupation and encapsulate the experience of the batok process among individuals with batok and their family/community members. Findings support the conceptualization of batok as a resistive collective occupation.

This research provides deeper insight into the collective occupation of Indigenous cultural practice, with the potential to expand occupational science’s understanding of decolonizing occupations. Its exploration within an occupational science framework can aid in reducing the residual stigma from colonization through uplifting resistive occupations that challenge the attitudes that nearly contributed to the annihilation of batok. Acknowledgment of the importance of diverse and nonsanctioned occupations on an individual’s communal identity, and the impact that community has on their experience, calls for occupational scientists to explore occupations from collective and Indigenous perspectives.

Batok, an Ilokano term for Indigenous Filipino tattooing, involves hand-tapping ink made from pine soot and water using bone/wood implements with needles (iron, brass, bamboo, or thorns) (Wilcken, 2010). Each unique design signifies ancestral lineage and placement indicates the nature of the task. The quantity of batok reflects one's bravery and nobility. Modern-day batok (Philippine post-colonial era) varies in the type of materials used for the practice, but traditional elements of the batok the process remains the same. Through the practice of batok, there was an intertwined experience and expression of words, sounds, art, and creativity all reflecting on the state of body, mind, and spirit.