# Native American scarring and/or tatooing
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 23, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277 "2010-06-23T21:50:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/1 "2010-06-23T21:50:38Z")
Did any of the Native American cultures ever use ritualistic scarring or tattooing?
I think I remember that the Mandan culture did but I need proof to settle an argument.
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### Author:  [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/2 "2010-06-24T20:59:47Z")
The Yupik did: [Yupik tatooing](http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/st.lawrence_lasttattoos.htm) I am old enough to have actually met a Yupik with tattoos at UAF.
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### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/3 "2010-06-24T21:03:46Z")
> [@janeslogin](#):
>
> The Yupik did: [Yupik tatooing](http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/st.lawrence_lasttattoos.htm) I am old enough to have actually met a Yupik with tattoos at UAF.
Thanks for the information; I think I forgot about the Pacific north-west. Your post reminded me that I did know that some of those peoples were tattooed.
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### Author:  [@MsChilePepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsChilePepper)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2010, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/4 "2010-06-25T07:10:01Z")
In Plains tribes that practiced the Sun Dance, once the dancer managed to pull the skewers from his skin to end the dance, wood ash was often rubbed into the wound to create a sort of tattooed or darkened scar. So there’s a twofer for ya.
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### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/5 "2010-06-25T15:04:19Z")
> [@MsChilePepper](#):
>
> In Plains tribes that practiced the Sun Dance, once the dancer managed to pull the skewers from his skin to end the dance, wood ash was often rubbed into the wound to create a sort of tattooed or darkened scar. So there’s a twofer for ya.
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/6 "2010-06-25T15:48:51Z")
from wikipedia:
> **[Nez Perce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nez_Perce)**
>
> The Nez Perce (/ˌnɛz ˈpɜːrs, ˌnɛs -/ ⓘ; autonym in Nez Perce: nimíipuu, meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region has been occupied for at least 11,500 years.
> Members of the Sahaptin language group, the Nimíipuu were the dominant people of the Columbia Plateau for much of that time, especially after acquiring the horses that led them to breed the Ap...
> [@](#):
>
> Nez Perce is a misnomer given by the interpreter of the Lewis and Clark Expedition at the time they first encountered the Nez Perce in 1805. It is from the French, “pierced nose.” This is an inaccurate description of the tribe. They did not practice nose piercing or wearing ornaments. The actual “pierced nose” tribe lived on and around the lower Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest and are commonly called the Chinook tribe by historians and anthropologists.
the article on the Chinook, [Chinookan peoples - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_people) , mentions using boards to flatten heads, but does not mention piercing.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/7 "2010-06-25T15:53:48Z")
While Sundance scars are visible, they are not supposed to be “shown off” or admired, according to one of my friends who’s been a Sundancer for many years. He’s adamant about not opening his shirt to show them to anyone (although sometimes he won’t wear a shirt at all, and doesn’t care if you see them then) because he says he was taught that cheapens the spiritual experience. I can see that.
I don’t know if it’s always been that way or if it’s just the current thinking, or even, really, how wide spread that thinking currently is. Just thought I’d throw it out there. At least some modern day Sundancers’ scars are not really “scarring and/or tattooing” in a decorative sense.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/8 "2010-06-26T01:27:03Z")
There was a student at my college who had Sundanced twice, but he felt the same way about the scars. He wouldn’t show them off or show them on request, but neither would he hide them.
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### Author:  [@Caminandocuevro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caminandocuevro)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/9 "2017-09-30T15:46:02Z")
> [@LouisB](#):
>
> Did any of the Native American cultures ever use ritualistic scarring or tattooing?
>
> I think I remember that the Mandan culture did but I need proof to settle an argument.
Yes definitely scarring was and still is used by many many tribes, nowadays often the scarring after ritual will sometimes be covered up with tattoos especially by the following so as I said many many tribes, not just the Madan, its kind of put on dampener on the term used by a certain faction unscarred doesn’t it?, it should be noted though that scarring is not the same as show exhibition often seen in shock horror circuses , any look in would mean inappropriate tribal intrusion.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2017, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/10 "2017-09-30T15:54:18Z")
NM - didn’t realize this was a zombie and I repeated my prior post.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2017, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/native-american-scarring-and-or-tatooing/544277/11 "2017-10-01T12:09:13Z")
> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> NM - didn’t realize this was a zombie and I repeated my prior post.
Too late, bwa-ha-ha.
The Mohave also tattooed, as [Olive Oatman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Oatman) could have attested.
[Eva](http://hellonwheels.wikia.com/wiki/Eva_Toole), a character in the TV series _Hell on Wheels_ had a chin tattoo identical to Olive’s and a similar back story.