Last year I was fortunate enough to get a tattoo from the legendary Apo Whang Od, the oldest tattoo artist in the world. The 107 year old artist resides in the remote northern Philippine mountains in a village known as Buscalan. Getting a tattoo from her is one of my fondest travel experiences and I highly encourage anyone traveling in the Philippines to make the journey to her village while you have the opportunity. If you decide to take such journey, this article will be a detailed guide of how to get a tattoo from Apo Whang Od. The path there honestly isn’t as hard as expected. It just takes patience, a bit of asking around, and the optional motion sickness pills. You’ll also have a few different options of getting there. All primarily departing from either Manila or Baguio (one of my favorite cities in the Philippines). However, this article will only be covering the Manila/Bontoc Route (the most popular) as this is what I have experience with. There is also private tours that you can book mostly picking up from Manila that I’d imagine are more convenient, but certainly more expensive.
Keep in mind:
Before taking the journey there’s a few things to be aware of. Firstly is that nowadays Apo Whang Od only tattoos her signature three dots. If you wish to get other Kalinga tattoos while there you can get one from one of her granddaughters, who are trained to carry on the tradition. Another thing you should keep in mind is that the tattooing process is very unhygienic. I will talk more on this later under the “getting the tattoo” section. I feel its worth mentioning because a lot of guides on the subject leave out the extent of that detail, and I’m well aware not everybody wants to risk infection just to get a few dots of charcoal tapped into their skin. One last thing to be aware of is there is no ATM in or near the village so stock up on cash before leaving Manila or Baguio.
Getting to Buscalan:
Quick Overview:
From Manila the process is simple. You’ll take a bus to either Bontoc or Tabuk. From which you’ll take another bus to a drop off point at Bugnay, where there will be guys with motorbikes waiting to take you to the village. You’ll hop on and take about a 15 minute ride up the mountains to the trekking point, where you’ll then have to hike down and back up a small valley to reach the village (sounds worse than it is).
Manila-Bontoc:
The first leg in your journey will be taking the bus from Manila to either Bontoc or Tabuk. Personally I went the Bontoc route as it seemed easier than going via Tabuk, so that’s the way I’ll be writing about and recommend you go. You’ll want to take the Coda Line bus leaving from the Coda Lines terminal in Cubao, Quezon City. I’d recommend you purchase your tickets in advance either online or in person. Tickets will cost around 1,000 PHP/20$ USD. All buses leave at night and take approximately 10 hours, so you’ll arrive in Bontoc in the morning. There’s no toilet on the normal bus but you will make a short 10-15 minute stop a few hours in where there will be a bathroom.
Coda Lines Website: codalinesbus.com
Address: Monte de Piedad, corner Maryland Street, Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila
Contact Numbers:
+63 0927 559 2197
+63 0929 521 3229
Bontoc-Bugnay
In the morning when you arrive in Bontoc you’ll need to decide between a taking another bus or a jeepney to the drop off point. I chose to go via bus since I’m not particularly fond of dragging my bags onto a crowded jeepney. If you choose to go with the bus than you can hail a tricycle driver and tell them your looking for the bus that goes towards Buscalan and they should know where to bring you. Assuming the driver got the point you’ll be dropped off on a side street down the road a ways at a small bus station with just one or two buses. Upon arriving you’ll more than likely have some time to kill before the bus actually leaves. If you need to use the bathroom the small store across the street has a tiny bathroom you can use for just a couple of pesos. The next part of the journey will be the sketchiest part. After an undetermined amount of waiting a driver guaranteed to be hyped up on betel nut will board the dinky little bus you regrettably got on and you’ll soon take off to discover the perils of windy, landslide ridden mountain roads. If you get car sick I’d recommend taking some Dramamine or whatever other medicine brings you relief. If you enjoy good views and aren’t afraid of heights, sit on the right side of the bus. If your one to tremble in fear in the face of unsafe roads, sit on the left. Make sure to tell the person on the bus your getting off at the Bugnay convenience store to go to Buscalan as the bus has more destinations after your drop.
Bugnay-Buscalan Village
After arriving to the drop off point there should be some guys with motorbikes waiting to drive people to the village for a couple of bucks. If they aren’t already there than you can wait at the the small store/restaurant that you’ll be next to. When you do get on one of the motorbikes the friendly locals will drive you a couple of miles up to the village drop off point where you will register to get into the village (also a couple of dollars) and get assigned a mandatory guide who will cost around 1000 PHP/20$ USD per day. If your staying the night you’ll pay an extra four or five hundred pesos (8-10$USD). After paying your dues you’ll finally take the hike across the valley and into the village.
The Hike
Before you start the hike you can hire a porter to carry your bag for around 500 php/10$ USD. If you aren’t fit or have multiple bags I would reccomend it. I had two bags with me and chose to have him bring across my heavy bag and it arrived in the village with no issues. The hike itself isn’t too bad, and wasn’t nearly as long as I expected. You can actually see the village quite closely from the starting point, its only maybe a few hundred feet across the valley. There will be two routes to choose from, the long and easier way, or the shorter but harder way. Regardless of which you choose you’ll start on a descend down the valley and then proceed to go uphill directly into the village. Try not to get your feelings hurt if you stop for a break and get passed by one local elderly ladies.
Once you arrive
When you’ve arrived in the village you will have to check in before being led to where you’ll stay the night (if you are, and if your not you should). Hopefully at this point you’ll already understand that your accommodation wont exactly be a five star luxury hotel. Unless a five star hotel in your eyes consist of a single mattress on the floor of a square room. But what the place lacks in terms of comfort it make up for in terms of uniqueness. If you’ve made the journey here your probably already the type of person, like me, who would rather stay in a village chewing betel nut and drinking village grown coffee with locals whom you can’t properly communicate with, then spend a day at the spa of a luxury resort (though that sounds nice too). After getting settled in you’ll have to wait around for awhile before getting the famous tattoo. When I went I had to wait at least a couple of hours for my turn despite there being very little tourist in the village at the time (I’ve heard its sometimes busy so I’d recommend going on a weekday). The reasoning? Well Whang Od just likes to sleep in a guess. She didn’t end up waking up till around 5pm the day I got tattooed. There’s some stuff you can do in the meantime though. If your hungry your guide can show you to the tiny little restaurant where you’ll just have to eat whatever the “chef” is cooking up at the time. There’s an amazing view looking at the valley from this spot and its a good spot to kill some time. You can also choose to get a tattoo from one of Whang Od’s granddaughters who also practice the Kalinga style tattoo. There’s a list of designs to choose from at the check in spot where you arrive at the village. I got the “traveler” design and I think it cost me around 700Php/12$ USD. Your guide can also give you a longer tour of the village if you wish, as well as bring you to some of the spots where you can buy souvenirs such as clothing, mugs, or some of the village grown coffee.
Getting the Tattoo
When you’ve finally been summoned to her home, you’ll shuffle through the village streets to Apo Whang Od herself, tattooing utensil in hand (a carved stick with a thorn from a citrus tree that you’ll buy at check in for) , where she will be waiting with a halved coconut shell containing potentially contaminated, watered down charcoal. Remember how I mentioned earlier that the tattooing process is quite unhygienic? Well allow me to tell you the details of how the tattoo will be given, and then I want you to find the steps in the process that would cause the shutdown of any half decent tattoo shop. Firstly, she will dip her bare finger into the bowl of village made ink, and then she will apply that ink to the tip of the thorn used to poke you. She will then begin tapping in the thorn, surely getting your blood on the tip as it pierces your skin. Then, when she needs to reapply more ink, she will dip her finger back into the bowl, and repeat the process. Do you see the problem? The coconut bowl of charcoal isn’t just that, its a melting pot of all the peoples blood that were in front of you in line. You better just hope none of those people before you has aids. But lets be honest, at the end of the day your probably just gonna get the tattoo regardless.
Tattoo aftercare
I don’t want to speak too much on this as everybody heals differently. If you ask the locals what to do after the tattoo they will basically tell you to do nothing. I might have found this method all fine and dandy before seeing how the tattoo was done, but afterwards I figured I’d take matters into my own hands. I treated it as I do all my tattoos. I washed it very gently a couple times a day and applied a small amount of aloe vera gel on it to moisturize and help keep it clean. And just repeated this until it started to look better. I suspected the tattoo was getting infected about a week afterwards as it wasn’t healing all that great, but my main tattoo artist told me it was probably just because of the tattooing method. It never did end up getting infected, however many months later and the holes in my skin never fully filled in, still leaving a miniature crater of sorts where the three dots lay.
Leaving the village
When you wrap up your stay in the village your guide will help you walk back across the valley where you’ll take another motorbike back to Bugnay. From there it really depends on where your headed next. The most likely place you’d be going I’d assume to be Baguio or Manila. If either of these is true you will wait at the small store again until a jeepney comes by headed back in the direction you originally came from. You’ll depart back off to Bontoc where you will find another bus station with buses headed to a variety of places. I was headed for Baguio but I’d imagine there’s a direct route back to Manila from there, and if there’s not you can catch a connection to Manila via Baguio.
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