{"id":"01KG8AKSKQJNK37RVC78ATCV72","cid":"bafkreifnhydgnpwhtzezp4zxcgy33ucrksysmfs3kxdryxi5gyn6j4enfm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1139,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":1062,"text":"Some tattooers, yearning after perfection, employ, at large wages, one\r\nor two men of the commonest order—vile fellows, utterly regardless of\r\nappearances, upon whom they first try their patterns and practise\r\ngenerally. Their backs remorselessly scrawled over, and no more canvas\r\nremaining, they are dismissed and ever after go about, the scorn of\r\ntheir countrymen.\r\n\r\nHapless wights! thus martyred in the cause of the Fine Arts.\r\n\r\nBeside the regular practitioners, there are a parcel of shabby,\r\nitinerant tattooers, who, by virtue of their calling, stroll unmolested\r\nfrom one hostile bay to another, doing their work dog-cheap for the\r\nmultitude. They always repair to the various religious festivals, which\r\ngather great crowds. When these are concluded, and the places where\r\nthey are held vacated even by the tattooers, scores of little tents of\r\ncoarse tappa are left standing, each with a solitary inmate, who,\r\nforbidden to talk to his unseen neighbours, is obliged to stay there\r\ntill completely healed. The itinerants are a reproach to their\r\nprofession, mere cobblers, dealing in nothing but jagged lines and\r\nclumsy patches, and utterly incapable of soaring to those heights of\r\nfancy attained by the gentlemen of the faculty.\r\n\r\nAll professors of the arts love to fraternize; and so, in Hannamanoo,\r\nthe tattooers came together in the chapters of their worshipful order.\r\nIn this society, duly organized, and conferring degrees, Hardy, from\r\nhis influence as a white, was a sort of honorary Grand Master. The blue\r\nshark, and a sort of Urim and Thummim engraven upon his chest, were the\r\nseal of his initiation. All over Hivarhoo are established these orders\r\nof tattooers. The way in which the renegado’s came to be founded is\r\nthis. A year or two after his landing there happened to be a season of\r\nscarcity, owing to the partial failure of the breadfruit harvest for\r\nseveral consecutive seasons. This brought about such a falling off in\r\nthe number of subjects for tattooing that the profession became quite\r\nneedy. The royal ally of Hardy, however, hit upon a benevolent\r\nexpedient to provide for their wants, at the same time conferring a\r\nboon upon many of his subjects.\r\n\r\nBy sound of conch-shell it was proclaimed before the palace, on the\r\nbeach, and at the head of the valley, that Noomai, King of Hannamanoo,\r\nand friend of Hardee-Hardee, the white, kept open heart and table for\r\nall tattooers whatsoever; but to entitle themselves to this\r\nhospitality, they were commanded to practise without fee upon the\r\nmeanest native soliciting their services.\r\n\r\nNumbers at once flocked to the royal abode, both artists and sitters.\r\nIt was a famous time; and the buildings of the palace being “taboo” to\r\nall but the tattooers and chiefs, the sitters bivouacked on the common,\r\nand formed an extensive encampment.\r\n\r\nThe “Lora Tattoo,” or the Time of Tattooing, will be long remembered.\r\nAn enthusiastic sitter celebrated the event in verse. Several lines\r\nwere repeated to us by Hardy, some of which, in a sort of colloquial\r\nchant he translated nearly thus:\r\n\r\n“Where is that sound?\r\nIn Hannamanoo.\r\nAnd wherefore that sound?\r\nThe sound of a hundred hammers,\r\nTapping, tapping, tapping\r\nThe shark teeth.”\r\n\r\n“Where is that light?\r\nRound about the king’s house,\r\nAnd the small laughter?\r\nThe small, merry laughter it is\r\nOf the sons and daughters of the tattooed.”\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER IX.\r\nWE STEER TO THE WESTWARD—STATE OF AFFAIRS\r\n\r\n\r\nThe night we left Hannamanoo was bright and starry, and so warm that,\r\nwhen the watches were relieved, most of the men, instead of going\r\nbelow, flung themselves around the foremast.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJG7BF5TQY7F5YHS0Y1DK","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSKQ97T65351D48H780Y","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSKQ57X40Z9TPEJV882M","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.991Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:23.837Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}