Webdesk: Apo Whang-Od, a 106-year-old Filipino traditional tattoo artist, is the oldest Vogue cover model.
CNN claims that Whang-Od, also known as Maria Oggay, is the country’s oldest mambabatok, or traditional Kalinga tattooist. She makes geometric shapes on her clients’ skin using a bamboo stick, a pomelo tree thorn, water, and coal.
Whang-Od tattooed hundreds of pilgrims to Buscalan, her mountain town, with Kalinga insignia. Butbut warriors used to get them. Since only blood relatives can pass on the craft, she has been teaching her grandnieces Elyang Wigan and Grace Palicas.
As long as people keep getting tattoos, Whang-Od is not worried about the tradition ending. She’ll tattoo as long as she can. “My tattoo buddies have all died,” she told CNN Travel in 2017. “I’m the only one left giving tattoos, but I’m training the future tattoo masters, so the tradition will continue as long as people keep coming to receive tattoos,” she said. I’ll keep tattooing till my vision blurs.
Vogue Philippines editor-in-chief Bea Valdes said the staff unanimously chose Whang-Od for the cover because she embodies Filipino culture and beauty should embrace different and inclusive features and forms. Beauty must change. “We want to talk about human beauty,” Valdes said.
Apo Whang-Vogue Od’s Philippines cover makes her the oldest cover model ever, surpassing Dame Dench’s 2020 British Vogue cover aged 85.
