Tattooing among both men and women is an integral part of Bedouin culture, particularly among those living in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. Berber Tattooing is a unique and tender record of the tribal skin art of Morocco’s Middle Atlas. The result of a series of chance encounters, Felix & Loretta’s Leu’s road trip in 1988, opened a doorway into the intimate world of the women of the Berber tribes. In this book, the women tell their individual stories, revealing the traditions of the tattoo in their culture, together with insights into the lives that they led. The tattoo tells a story, of the position in society, the transition from childhood to adulthood, sexuality, one can learn a lot from a person through the marks inscribed on his skin among the Berbers. Among these tribes, we distinguish the most prominent ones, such as the Chleuh of the Moroccan Mountain Atlas, the Kabyles of Northern Algeria, the Tuareg from southwest Libya to Mali, the Chaouia of Eastern Algeria, and the Mzab of Sub-Saharian Algeria. Origin of Amazigh tattoos: purposes, symbols and their meanings

While traditions vary among tribes, in some communities, a Bedouin girl's tattoos are chosen by her mother and are selected on the basis of a trait the parent would like to see in their child. For example, a dot on the nose means the hope of a long life for the child. Amazighs make up a third of the population in Morocco, a fifth in Algeria, five percent in Libya and a smaller percentage in Tunisia. To this day, it is said that the Amazigh people could count among more than 30 million in North Africa, representing a significant portion of the populations of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Among the Amazigh, tattooing is above all a question of identity! Indeed, the tattoo expresses the cultural and civilizational characteristics of the Berber people, the tattoos make it possible to determine which clan or family belongs to an individual but not that. The vertical chief attribute represents god and life, as well as the head tool planted in the ground by man Aia Leu works from her studio, she moved to Kenmare in Ireland in 1989 and lives near the town in the mountains. The daughter of Felix and Loretta Leu she was born in 1971, she studied figure sketching in Vevey, Switzerland as a teenager. Her paternal grandmother is the Swiss artist Eva Aeppli.Traces of this tradition can be found since antiquity in Maghreb, which lasted until the 1950s, before the custom disappeared in favor of a more modern and globalized style. This is the reason why today, only the elderly women are adorned with these drawings on their skin, the last witnesses of this ancestral practice. Albeit sharing similar culture, Amazighs are part of many regional sub-tribes that spread in different parts of North Africa, that include: Tattoos in a tribal context are as much a communicator as they are a means of Adornment. They can be understood in the capacity of an expression of self, a sign of religious belonging, or relieve symptoms of spiritual or physical ills.

Tattooing in North Africa is an ancient practice that pre-dates Islam, and is still relatively common among the Amazigh women of Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya. For Muslims, most of the time, the tattoo is proscribed by Islam, symbol of sin and mutilation, adjustment of the divine work, despite its status of immemorial custom, the imams continuing to condemn ancient beliefs in supernatural elements. This is why women, the main users of aesthetic designs on the skin, today use more commonly, for religious reasons, the temporary and non-mutilating henna tattoo. There are many ceremonies associated with Henna, during which it remains very present, even today: the custom of marriage (ritual of the “night of henna”, birth, baptism, circumcision. Another reason why Amazigh women would tattoo themselves was prophylactic. Indeed, these tattoos served to ward off the evil eye for many. Women used them for therapeutic purposes to cure both psychological and physical ailments. The decoration of the tattoo is composed almost exclusively of geometric figures and straight, broken lines, most often similar to the patterns of carpets and fabrics of Berber tribes.

Who are the Amazigh people?

Women see the frog’s song as pure because this animal is deemed sacred as it lives in the rare waters of the desert. Berbers used to live in several Berber regions of North Africa, and they often lived in the mountainous and desert areas. Berber tattoos complete this elegant and well-groomed look: these geometric signs in the shape of an arrow, a point, or a triangle, cover their faces, hands and ankles, the only uncovered parts of their bodies. Felix had a flowing way of drawing. I love his lines and colours in all of his designs. One of my favourites is the dragon and opium pipe he drew for a client in Goa, and of course all the little sundowns over the sea with a few palm trees which he created. I love his psychedelic and freehand work, particularly his forearm which he designed and tattooed on himself in 1978. I also like his traditional flash with hearts and roses and I have two of these which he designed for me tattooed on my arms; one is a series of hearts and a rose with our kids’ names in scrolls and the other is a heart with two bluebirds and a scroll which reads “Felix Forever”.

According to legend, Amazigh women would cover themselves with tattoos in the presence of French soldiers in a bid to deter their sexual interest. There is a wide diversity of representations of Amazigh symbols throughout Greater Tamazgha regarding Amazigh tattoos. Maya identifies six symbols with different meanings in most of North Africa. For these women, tattoos mark different phases in their lives, and consequently start at a young age. The symbols can, among others, have meanings related to strength, energy, fertility, healing, and protection from envy. Aia’s work draws directly from her multicultural and bohemian upbringing. Her work is particularly influenced by both her years spent as a child in India, and the richness of the Irish landscape. Her work is in private collections worldwide, she has had solo shows and contributed to group shows internationally. Her work was on exhibit in the ‘Leu Family Art’ at the Museum Tinguely Basel in Switzerland in 2021. Paintings currently for sale by Aia Leu can be viewed here.

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Many women today choose to mark themselves with henna instead, a natural dye that fades away over the course of a week or two. Bedouin