Fine quality Jagua
By: Krysteen Lomonaco ~
5/13/2012
I wanted to share this incredible display of the use of Jagua. Maureen from Alabama is using Jagua to imitate traditional tattoos of the Southeastern Woodland Indians at a living history fort, called Creek Village.
Krysteen, I just wanted to thank you for sending such a fine quality product (jagua and mehndi) some weeks ago. As I think I told you earlier, I do a lot of living history and a significant amount of that is the portrayal of a mixed blood (Creek Indian/French) woman at Ft. Toulouse, a c.1710 French fort - beautifully restored - in Wetumpka, AL.
I was hoping to replicate the tattoos that were prevalent among all Southeastern Woodland Indians, including the Creeks. Extant images are very rare and don't display the tattoos on Creek, Seminole, and Choctaw women too well, but there are very detailed drawings/engravings of Virginia and North/South Carolina Native women, produced by John White in the late 1600s. I used those as a model for my tatts, since we know that designs among Deep South Woodland Natives were highly varied and included everything from zoomorphic forms to geometric forms.
Attached are two photos, one of me (and a colleague, Deb 'Pisaluak' Sanders) at the Creek Village and one of my forearms. I used the jagua only, since while there is evidence for some reddish pigments (notably cinnabar) among SE Natives, the primary coloring agents would have been charcoal and indigo. The jagua is perfect for those colors.
It has been nearly 10 days since I applied the jagua and I still have faint designs, especially on my lower legs. My skin appears to love the stuff. It colored up deep blue-black by Day Two and remained totally strong for one solid week.
I'll order again, with pleasure!
Maureen 'Marie Prudence Gagne'
Krysteen
