Berber Tattooing: in Morocco's Middle Atlas

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Each tribe has a leader who chooses their partners (sometimes the leader is a woman) and there is a strong sense of unity and community.

Meet the Tattooed Berber Women of the Atlas Mountains From the photographic series 'C’est Haram', documenting the dying tradition of facial tattooing of Berber women, Morocco, 2020. The beginning of the 2010s has seen a resurge of Amazigh tattoos due to the North African diaspora’s awakening. There is no exact date, but what is known is that the Berber tribes, since the ancient drawings that were found in the caves, and based on some books and sources that talked about tattoos in the Berber tribes, it dates back to thousands of years," says Mohamed Es-Semmar, a historian. At the same time Felix was a tough and meticulous teacher not only to them but also to the many young artists who visited us.

Her work was on exhibit in the ‘Leu Family Art’ at the Museum Tinguely Basel in Switzerland in 2021.

Many tribes in Africa view the body as a canvas for decoration and would prefer to wear little to no clothing. In this sense, tattooing is an anthropological phenomenon known to Amazigh man since the dawn of time and practiced daily. The tattoos, which have a charcoal or dark green tinge to them, are usually done at home, drawn on to the skin by other women, who make an indentation in the skin and then rub in a smoke black or indigo mixture. Their symbolism revolves mainly around values ​​such as frankness, strength, prosperity, tenacity or energy but also around femininity, fertility, marriage, healing, and home. Through them, women could find means of expression without words, beyond the constraint of Islamic society and a mere enhancement of physical beauty.

Ritual and tribal music is heard at festivals, as well as at markets, weddings and any celebrations. Tattoos found between the eyes are aimed at warding away the "evil eye" and harm that can come about as a result of it. At that time, tattoo centres were considered like beauty salons -- a place where women used to go to look pretty.