It’s believed to have originated from the Polynesian word tatau. Traditional Polynesian tattoos used a comb called “au” which was tapped with a mallet “sausau” to push the ink into the skin.

In 1973, Ben Finney and a group of Polynesian specialists and canoe enthusiasts formed the Polynesian Voyaging Society to build a large voyaging canoe to attempt the Hawai'i - Tahiti round-trip in ...

When the Southeast Asian sailors started out on their odyssey they were not yet identifiably Polynesian. Only after many years of learning how to voyage long distances, and to survive on the high ...