History Seen on the Skin Made by a Teen

By: Rhea Pascua & Zirah Sardoma

To fancy over the beauty of Filipino tribal groups is one thing but to tattoo their culture and beliefs using patterns on your own skin for 30 minutes is what do you call extreme artistry.

Carl Joseph Lara, an 18-year-old Arts and Design student from the Silliman University, blew the local Twitter universe after his brother posted his artwork featured in Ariniego Art Gallery. It quickly caught attention out of its content and unique representation.

His artwork, a compilation of self-made marks of hinagiban (a Visayan word for armor) pattern that recognizes the struggle of the art of Filipino tribes after the western colonization era that almost made them forgotten by countrymen.

“One of the reasons why these tattoos are important to the Philippine culture is because these tattoos were believed to have given spiritual power and magical qualities with strength and protection while the tribes fought for their land and identity, hence made them warriors to their tribes which gave inspired the title “Hinagiban” which means armor. However, in some other places the term is also referred to as weapon, thus the images can be seen as weapons to fight back colonial mentality,” the artist said.

Below are the photos of Lara’s hinagiban art (all credits to Carl Joseph Lara):

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Lara has a skin condition called Dermatographic Urticaria which means he can cause wheals on his own skin usually a red itchy bump that according to him lasts for 30 minutes long.

He admitted that the patterns, especially on the sensitive area, are painful. After he drew one, he will wait for 30 minutes to start again to another area. This took him a lot of effort given the fact that this is not an easy artwork.

He said, “the process was very challenging. Not only I have dermatographia, but I also have a very sensitive skin and I’m not allowed to use moisturizer for this artwork so that wheals would arise to its max. It was very painful, especially on the sensitive parts like belly, chest, and forehead. If I would rate the pain from 1-10, the sensitive parts would be around 8.5-10 and the rest would be around 6-8.”

But this is not his first time drawing patterns on his skin. He said that occasionally, he makes marks for the awareness of the people to his skin condition that only affects 2-5 percent of the population around the world.