In December 2020, Inuit TikTok user Shina Nova got her first facial tattoos — a thin line etched vertically on her chin and two across both cheeks — called tunniit and kakiniit. (Kakiniit refers to the tattoo process and tradition; the face tattoos are referred to as tunniit.) "A lot of people told me I would regret it and that it would ruin my face, my 'beauty,'" she wrote in the caption .
"I don't think so." Three months later, she revealed the meaning behind them in another video: "The one on my chin represents womanhood, and to honor all the beautiful women that helped guide me every single day. The one on my cheeks, I keep them personal to myself.
Inuit had tattoos as a rite of passage and to show their accomplishments, but it was also to beautify a woman. But in the 20th century, this practice was banned by the Christian missionaries, it was considered evil and demonic. People felt ashamed to have them, it was a forbidden practice.
But today there are more and more Inuit getting their Tunniit and Kakiniit. We wear them proudly. It's part of our identity, and it's part of who I am.
I'm proud to be an Inuit woman." More people are becoming aware of the traditional tattoo practices in Indigenous cultures thanks to people like Nova bringing them to the limelight. Supermodel Quannah Chasinghorse, who is Hän Gwich'in and Oglala Lakota, also has traditional facial tattoos — called Yidįįłtoo, which is a singular line running down the chin — as a marker for her cu.
