How to Draw a Maori Tattoo

Artist: Dawn / February 8, 2010
How to Draw a Maori Tattoo

Step 1.


First draw a long vertical line in the center of your sheet of paper. Next add the spiral or swirl like lines that need to be drawn so that they appear to be hugging each other. Once that is done draw the bottom design line too.

Step 2.


Here you will carefully sketch out the uniformed lines that curve in a way to look like arched nails of some sorts. Take your time and just follow the lining. Start from the top, and work your way down.

Step 3.


As you can see the next two shapes look like curled horns that flow into each other. There is also detached shapes at the base of the top horn, and then the brass looking ends. Add some designing definition, and move to the next step.

Step 4.


Now you will start sketching out the lining that will shape and form the left side of the Maori tattoo. Take your time and just slowly follow the lining until your art looks like this forth step.

Step 5.


For your final step all you need to do is draw the right side curled in to hug the left side as you see here. When the guidelines are erased, you should end up with Maori art that resembles a woman's face.

Step 6.


Now you're done. Color in your tattoo art so you can see the face much clearer. This type of Maori art is a good stencil if you are looking for a cool design for your shoulder, elbow, or calf. I hope you liked this tutorial, be sure to join me again    

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Details

Artist: Dawn
Date Added: February 8, 2010
Steps: 6
Favorited: 14 (view)
Views: 6 in last hour, 5 in last day, 29 in last week, 153527 total
Comments: 0
Tags: how to draw a tattoo, draw tattoos, draw a tattoo, how to draw tribal
Description: How many tattoos are there that hold meaning, and sometimes even tell a story? I know I have submitted a wide variety of tattoo art and some of them hold no meaning at all, but there are also others that do. Today I am going to take a step back and submit a lesson that will teach you “how to draw a Maori tattoo, step by step”. I know what some of you are thinking, what the heck is a Maori tattoo? It's actually called Moko and this tattooing technique was done to decorate the face of men with spiral shapes and lines. All men were tattooed in this fashion and some where even inked on other parts of the body. Now a man that had a uniform symmetrical tattooed face, gave them a sense of pride which also represented the pride a man had as a warrior. Another bonus was, it was also very attractive to the native women. Maori tattooing instruments that was used by the Maoris people, consisted of small chisel like pieces of bone, and shell or metal. The tips were then dipped in a form of ink that left a pigmentation on the skin. In order to give a Maori tattoo properly, the sharp needle like tips where hammered or pounded into the skin until it penetrated through the flesh. This was such a painful process that sometimes the cuts would be so deep that the tattooing tool went straight through the cheek. Obviously something that is done in this nature inflicted serious pain to the tattooee. Even though there was a lot of blood, Maori warriors never made a move, noise, or flinch when being tattooed because they had too much pride to express how they felt. To this day, the skill of Maori tattooing is nothing like we have ever seen before. The designs are so incredibly uniform, the whole face was tattooed leaving behind an artistic portrait of art the seemed to be natural. I created my own design so that when you learn how to draw a Maori tattoo, it will be from my mind making it unique and beautiful. Have fun with this lesson, and remember to keep checking the site for new tutorials that will pop up unexpectedly. Peace peeps, and happy drawing!

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