Vogue Philippines has featured Apo Whang-Od on the cover of its latest issue, making the 106-year-old tattoo artist the oldest person to grace the cover of Vogue.
Whang-Od – also known as Maria Oggay – is a mambabatok, or traditional indigenous tattoo artist, from the remote mountain village of Buscalan, about 15 hours north of capital city Manila, in Kalinga province.
She’s the oldest practitioner of the centuries-old batok tattooing technique, a hand-tapping method that uses a stick and thorn.
“Heralded as the last mambabatok of her generation, she has imprinted the symbols of the Kalinga tribe – signifying strength, bravery and beauty – on the skin of thousands of people who have made the prilgrimage to Buscalan,” Vogue Philippines wrote on Instagram on Friday (Mar 31).