At the age of 75 years, I attained something I didn’t imagine ever that I’d do. I got inked and no less by the legendary Apo Whang-Od!  Apo Whang-Od who is a 107 year old lady, is the oldest Filipino tattoo artist using the traditional ‘batok’ way to tattoo.  This involves the use a piece of a thorn from a pomelo tree (or calamansi plant) to apply ink to the skin of her clients. The thorn is attached to a six inch (15 cm) long grass bamboo-looking twig.  The thorn is dipped in a mixture of water and charcoal, and then tapped into the skin with a piece of about a foot (30.48 cm) long wood.   The implement has the inscription of “I got inked by Whang-Od” which makes it as very valuable memento of the tattoo experience.

Whang-od is a Kalinga tattoo artist known for her signature three-dot tattoo, which represents herself, her apprentices, and the next generation of her descendants. In Kalinga culture, the tradition of ‘batok’, or tattooing, is passed down through bloodlines. 


Her amazing tattooing talent has been celebrated far and wide in the Philippines and beyond.  It has earned her a front-page feature on Vogue Philippines in April 2023 at the age of 106 years.  (Photo credit - Vogue)


She is also featured in several earlier and recent vlogs which can be seen in YouTube.  Her popularity has resulted in a continued flow of tattoo enthusiasts from everywhere in the world.

Apo Whang-Od is surprisingly still sprightly at the age of 107 years. She has been known to have been practising the ancient art of marking skins from when she was sixteen years old under the tutelage of her father.  Her early work depicted bravery of warriors of the male members of her tribe and adorned the females with beauty charms. 

In early December, three people I knew unexpectedly passed on.  I thought that these were reminders that life indeed is unpredictable.  Based on these sad occurrences, I adapted the mantra along the lines of ‘life is unpredictable; do what makes you happy’.  A meet up with the revered Apo Whang-Od was certainly in this list,
 
In any case, I believe that destiny has it all mapped out to happen. In May 2023,  my niece, Rhea and family, and I visited relatives in Baguio.  At the time, I bought a tshirt which has the artwork of the face of Whang-od.  Then Rhea and family  went to visit Apo Whang-Od in March 2024.  Rhea made a vow to take me there at my next visit.  An unplanned trip in the second part of the year evolved when my sister and I were invited to be Ninangs in a niece’s wedding to be held in December.  My husband John was not able to join me in this trip to the Philippines as we have just moved to our new home, so he was busy unpacking boxes.  In a way, that made the trek easier to do as he was not happy when the topic of me getting a tattoo was discussed.

The Long Road to Apo Whang-Od

On December 19, 2024 at about 5:30am we left Cabiao, Nueva Ecija.  This was half hour later than planned but our ‘pilot’ JuJu was held up by the traffic of the Simbang Gabi attendees.  The team composed of Rhea, her assistant staff Angie, my sister Ellen, Juju and me.

The route we took was via Nueva Vizcaya - Ifugao - Mountain Province Rd, roughly 397.7km.   As Juju negotiated the winding at the Cordillera mountains and skilfully sharing the road from the oncoming vehicles, I made the mistake of checking messages every now and then.  There’s nothing nice being motion sick!  We also noted some boulders that had fallen a while back on the edge of the road and some only recently. 



We had two pit stops before the much-welcomed lunch break at Lolo Ido’s Restaurant at nearly 2:30pm.  The restaurant located at Bissang, Banaue, had a lovely view of the valley of little rice terraces and farms.   We enjoyed the freshly cooked pork adobo with ‘unli’ (unlimited) free clear soup (sinigang) and ‘unli’ boiled organic wild rice.  



  
We got to the registry point at 4:45pm at our destination of Buscalan. The process was easy as Rhea had made arrangements beforehand with her tourism contact, Connie.  We needed to traverse the hanging bridge to get to the small village across the ravine to get to Apo Whang-Od.  We were lucky because the tattoo enthusiasts used to hike down the ravine and then climb up to the other side.  Our female guide, Ampit mentioned that the hanging bridge was donated by Robin Padilla, an actor- politician.


All up, it took us nearly 11 hours to get to the registry.  As Apo Whang-Od finishes at 5pm, we would not have got there in time to have our tattoos done. Besides, it took us another half hour on foot on the hanging bridge and many steps to get to the other side of the mountain where our accommodation was.

Our Home Stay


 
Ampit took us to our accommodation.  When we were walking up the narrow stairs, we had to occasionally stop and allow the others coming from the opposite direction to pass.  There was a friendly atmosphere as people greeted and smiled to each other (reminded me of our Camino).  

A few minutes later in our walk, we realised and it was confirmed that we actually crossed paths and had a friendly encounter with a legend – Hidilyn Diaz, the celebrated weight lifter who won the first gold Olympic medal for the Philippines!!  This made News a few days later after she posted on her Instagram.  




Our overnight homestay cost P400 per person.  We were taken in a compound where there were about six rooms, of which we occupied three.  On each room, there was a double bed side mattress on the floor, with two pillows on top of it.  The beddings which were freshly taken from the clothes line smelt fresh sun-dried.  There was also an electric fan in our room.   

Outside our room, there was an area with a table and chairs; this served as our dining room.  There was an adjacent kitchen where we can cook if we wanted to.  The kitchen had a gas stove and an electric kettle.  There was a sink for washing up plates, pans and cutlery which were stacked on a drainer to drip dry.  There was a good supply of water coming from the mountains, pumped up through plastic tubes.  The only thing not available was a wifi connection which was a non-event item.  

The rest room had washing machines, for long stay I guess and for their own use to wash beddings.  There were big containers of water, with the taps also supplying water to top them up.   We had a squat style toilet but had access to modern one with pedestal which was located next to our compound.  We opted tor the former as we did not want to walk in the night to use the other toilet.

Connie (Rhea’s contact) advised that they would cook rice for us, but we need to bring some dishes (ulam) to eat it with for our dinner. For our dinner, we enjoyed the packed spare adobo from our lunch. I also brought one of the spicy Spanish sardines gifted to me by a sorority sister.  They also supplied freshly brewed coffee but I was glad to have bought some tea bags.

We slept soundly despite the rooster which crowed at times during the night.

 

   



On the Fateful Day

On December 20, we woke up at about 6am from a restful night.  The rooster made sure we knew it was time to get up.  We had coffee and cuppa to start the day and decided to go for a walk to see what we could buy from the little sari sari stores in between the home stays.

So we set off with just the keys of our rooms with us.  The children were not shy and greeted us as we walked past them.  We saw the adults going about doing their chores ie sweeping the ground, a lady shaking rice on a bilao (woven flat basket) to shake off any objects inadvertently mixed with the grains, etc.

We followed a sign which says “This Way to Whang-Od”.  This led us to a space like an ampitheatre where there were plastic chairs for people to sit to wait for their turn to have their tattoos.  There was a wall which had the photo of Apo Whang-Od, and with smaller photos and stickers posted by the people who had been tattoed over the years.

 

I noted that by this time, it was past 7am.  We were told that Apo Whang-Od starts at 8am, and takes rests during the day.   I decided to stay there and wait, making me first in the line. So I sent the rest of our group to go back to the rooms and bring our belongings, with the intention of making our way from there.    

At 7:45am a woman brought out a basket which contained Apo’s work tools ie the black ink and some wipes.   There were only four of us waiting.  At exactly 8am, Apo Whang-Od came.   Then a female guide came with two men.  She announced that the men would be done first as they were there last night.  I said we were there too, and made sure we came first thing in the morning.  I heard an anecdote of people fighting as there were queue jumpers.   Anyway, my party was not there yet so I didn’t comment any more.

It was supposed to be my turn but I let the girl after me go first.  Mainly because I did not have my wallet and things with me.  I ended up requesting her friend to lend me the P300 to give to Apo Whang-Od and I was to pay by GCash.  (We got chatting during the wait and found out that Ricafort has a brother in Manly and one in Adelaide.  He was happy to lend me the money and left before my companions joined me.).  I gave Apo her ‘fee’ and instead of giving her a tip, I presented her with a Sydney souvenir bag and a multi-pack of chocolates.  Then she happily posed for photos with me.



My Moments of Joy and Pain

It felt surreal as I sat down on the stool and came face to face with Apo Whang-Od.   She has a beautiful face belying the age of 107 years.  There were fine lines but I would not call them ‘wrinkles’.   She had the aura of a contented and empowered woman.

On that day, Apo was wearing a red cardigan with red and white designs teamed with a loose black pants.   Her neck, arms and top of her torso were covered up.  However, I have seen photos where they could be seen displaying beautiful tattoos (as published in the Vogue magazine and shown in many videos).

I greeted her in Tagalog “Magandang umaga po” (good morning) to which she nodded and gave me a half smile.  Then she asked for the ‘tinik’ to use for my tattoo.  The ‘tinik’ is from a calamansi (local lime) plant.  This cost only P30.  The sharp pike which was about nearly an inch long was dipped in the charcoal paste.  I requested for my three dots to be placed about three inches from the wrist on the inside of my left hand.  She first marked with a leaf where the dots were going. 


   


   


Then she started the rhythmic hitting of the ‘tinik’ with a piece of hardwood which was about a foot long. I experienced pain as the ‘tinik’ went in and pulled my skin as it was lifted out. My pain tolerance is quite low; so for me, it was 7-8 out of 10 range.  At the same time I was feeling the pain, a great sense of joy enveloped me.  It was euphoric that the tattooist legend was connecting me with an ancient cultural practice and I would have a memento of the beautiful experience.  The three dots only took 1 minute and 45 seconds as noted on the video; but it   felt much longer than that.  All throughout the process, Apo Whang-Od looked serious with concentration as she went about completing the task.  The chatter around us and the rooster’s constant crowing did not faze her.        

For the actual video of Apo Whang-Od doing my tattoo, click here.

Now when I watch the video and hear the tapping noise of the piece of wood hitting the tinik, I relive both the pain and the joy.  I feel the same when I look at the three dots which comprised her signature tattoo.  They symbolise the three generations of mambabatok – her father, herself and the nieces she has trained to continue on this ancient art of tattooing.

Before I close off, I want to say that the publicised cheeky ‘play-fullness’ of Whang-Od did not happen at the time I saw her tattooed few guys.  There are videos showing her grabbing the crotch of male clients after they have been inked or when they were posing for photos with her.  These include Filipinos and foreign tourists.  A Filipino celebrity who experienced this was Piolo Pascual when he visited Whang-Od in March 2024.


 

 

Continued Inspiration

The humbling experience of meeting Apo Whang-Od and getting tattoed by her encouraged me to get another tattoo I had been wanting to have.  A week after our Buscalan trip, Rhea made time to accompany me to their friend tattoo artist (Enrico's Tattoo Studio) in the nearby regional centre of Gapan in Nueva Ecija.

This time, Enrico used the modern device of doing tattooes. I had my tribute to Nanay done on my upper right shoulder.  This was a small artwork showing a geometric letter ‘G’ on which a small vine holding a rose was connected.  

     


The tattoo’s message is “God gave me a Rose”.  Nanay’s name was ‘Rosalina’ and she was nicknamed ‘Rose’.   Letter ‘g’ was also for ‘Garcia’, my maiden name.

Sincere Gratitude

If you got to this part of my sharing, thanks so much for making time for my reminiscing of a memorable journey.   Sincere thanks also to the team which accompanied me – Rhea and her assistant staff Angie, my sister Ellen and our skilful driver Juju for our safe journey, to Rhea’s soulmate and hubby Geff who was not able to go with us due to the orders for Gabrielle’s special bread and pastries but lent us his heavy-duty car.

Special thanks and much love to my hubby John for not being so aggro for my being “pasaway” (‘disobedient’) in going ahead with the tats. 

To our legend and living treasure Apo Whang-Od, thank you and my prayers for you to remain healthy and keep doing what you love doing, until the time you decide to completely handover the stick and ‘tinik’ to your descendants.  Also, to the talented modern tattoo artist, Eugenio for being patient and accommodating with his senior client.

Lastly, thanks to the Great Being and the universe for allowing me to have the moments and memento to cherish.

I fervently hope that this article sends the message that ‘life is only short, so do what makes your heart happy’. I feel that this story is worth writing and sharing if it encourages even only one person to undertake what he/she has been hesitating to do.  

As the say in the classic, seize the day; carpe diem!



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