How is traditional Samoan tattooing carried out?

Traditional Samoan tattooing is performed by a local tufuga (tattoo artist) and serves as a significant rite of passage for young men, typically beginning around the age of 12 or 13.1

The process involves tattooing the body from the waist to the knee. It is characterized as a prolonged and often painful experience. Despite 19th-century efforts by Christian missionaries to suppress the practice, Samoans successfully maintained the tradition, eventually helping to revive it among other Polynesian groups in the late 20th century.1