Discovering Amazigh symbols

Since ancient times, Berber women in North Africa have had the habit of tattooing their face and body. Have you traveled to a Maghreb country like Tunisia, Algeria or Morocco and come across older women tattooed with blue signs on their face, neck or hands?

Let's discover Berber tattoos: their history, their symbolism and their meaning.

An old Berber woman from Khemisset, Morocco

The Tattoos: an ancestral rite of Berber culture

The tattoo, "ticṛaḍ" in Tamazight, is one of the oldest rites of Berber culture. It lasted from antiquity until beginning to disappear in the middle of the 20th century. Within a generation, the tattoo ceased to be transmitted. Today, only a few very old women from Berber villages continue to wear them. Some of them, for religious reasons, even erased them because they were considered “haram”, being a pre-Islamic tradition.

Understanding and analyzing the tattoos that dress the face and body of Berber women is not an easy task. Of course, it is possible to find some interesting works around this tradition which marked several generations, but the testimonies of women who use these tattoos are increasingly rare to find.

Beyond aesthetics, a means of expression

The first reason for making these tattoos is purely aesthetic: although jewelry has always held a particularly important place, Berber women also got tattooed to beautify their body and face in the same way as jewelry. As a true sign of beauty; mothers and grandmothers encouraged girls to get tattoos to differentiate their face from that of men and thus make them desirable and attractive.

In some Tunisian Amazigh regions, for example, men offered tattoos to their suitors as a dowry. Most often performed on the eve of the wedding, tattoos were also intended to ward off bad luck and ward off the evil eye.

Apart from the ornamental function of these tattoos, they were used to commemorate important life events, to express a feeling or to symbolize social status. If a woman became a widow, for example, she would tattoo her chin and neck, symbolizing her deceased husband's beard. Moreover, tattoos have continued to adorn women's skin throughout their lives. Directed, too, therapeutically; many women used them to cure psychological and physical ailments.

Much more than aesthetic, Berber tattoos are a means of expression, a sign of identity but also a way to appease certain whims of life.

Patterns with geometric patterns and rich symbolism

Diamonds, triangles, squares, stars, dots, crescent moons… each of the designs used to tattoo women means something. The decor thus conveys a story. While the meaning of many of these symbols can be deciphered, many others are only known to those who wear them, which makes the body of each of these women a veritable secret garden.

Generally speaking, Berber tattoos are easy to distinguish; they are characterized by very fine lines and dots. Its symbolism revolves mainly around values such as openness, strength, prosperity, tenacity or even energy; but also around femininity, fertility, marriage, healing, the home... For example, a line with three dotted lines on the chin designates the line of life which is not fixed, but made up of ruptures and continuities.

The return of the Berber tattoo: a way to reconnect with tradition and perpetuate it

Although the Amazigh tattoo is an ancient tradition that tends to be lost, more and more young women and men want to perpetuate this rite by choosing a Berber symbol to get tattooed. If not everyone accepts to have their face tattooed anymore, many opt for a small design on the back of the wrist, on the upper part of the forearm, on the back or the nape of the neck: an interesting way for newcomers generations to recreate a bond with their loved ones. .origins and let's not forget this tradition that has been cared for and maintained for generations.

Berber tattoos by tattoo artist Manel Mahdouani (left and center, Agape Ink)

At Ïzza we try to make known this exciting world of Berber symbology through our creations. This is what inspires us to create our creations which will give way to a catalog of jewelry, decorative objects or fashion full of meaning and tradition.