00:00Up in the Cordilleras, there's a village where every woman you meet will tell you you look beautiful with tattoos.
00:27All I know about my dad was that he was a tattoo artist.
00:30He passed away last year and I had no intentions of meeting him.
00:35My tattoos are the only form of connection that I will ever have in this world with him.
00:41I never met him, but I think I do understand the feeling of having tattoos.
00:57A few years ago, someone told me that my body looked dirty with tattoos.
01:01To date, I currently have 9.
01:04I never really understood why people would consider it dirty.
01:09I mean, to me, it's just a form of expression.
01:12I even met someone with 51 tattoos and even then, all I felt was that it's brave of them to
01:18put something so permanent on their skin.
01:34If you flew over Buscalan, you might not look twice.
01:39Terrace fields, small houses, trails between them.
01:43And it looks like a big village in the Cordilleras.
01:46And for the most part, life here still runs on the same things.
01:52Planting, harvesting, cooking, looking after family, work, and more work.
01:58But if you look closer, something has changed.
02:02Better houses, new businesses, more stalls, more constructions, and then there's something else I couldn't stop noticing.
02:11The oldest people here are still working, and they're also quite strong.
02:17So, I came here with 3 questions.
02:211.
02:21Why do people travel half a day from Manila just to get tattooed?
02:262.
02:27Why do people here seem to go so old until 100?
02:313.
02:33What happens to a place when a thing that makes it famous is an artist?
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02:39To answer any of them, I had to start with something older than the villagers' fame.
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03:54One, two, three.
04:08In the Cordilleras, tattooing is called patok.
04:12Long before this was a tourist experience, it was a language.
04:17Marks showed where you came from, what you'd done, and who you were within your community.
04:22The method hasn't changed.
04:24A thorn is fixed to a stick, ink is made from charcoal, and the artist, the Mababato, taps each dot
04:31into the skin by hand, one at a time.
04:37The tree is made from the wood, and the pine tree.
04:46And the tree is planted in the wood, the middle of the wood.
04:51When the wood is cut, we put it in the water, then we put it in the water.
04:56Then, the pinnick has a small hole, then the pinnick is the design of the stick.
05:06The pinnick is the pinnick of the pinnick of the tree, then the pinnick of the tree.
05:14As you can see on the boys, the pinnick is the pinnick of the pinnick.
05:22When you have a tattoo, you have a baby.
05:28It's like a tribal war, right?
05:31You have a baby.
05:37For the women, it was the beauty of the tattoo.
05:43They were nice and consumo, but they were not very expensive.
05:50She is the pinnick of a double artist.
05:53It was a pretty good thing for the very young generation.
05:59It was a very good thing for every row.
06:09When you hear that, we are called the village.
06:13Yes, yes.
06:14So, the present is beautiful.
06:17It's beautiful.
06:18It's beautiful.
06:44Thanks.
06:59Oh wow.
07:13You don't just say her name, you say, Apple.
07:17A word of respect for an elder.
07:20Back then, a tattooist was a person who made a warrior a warrior.
07:25According to anthropologists, tattooing was mostly men's work, and women tattooists were rare.
07:32Apple Wang Od learned the craft as a teenager, and she tattooed the warriors of her village.
07:38And in case you're wondering, she never married.
07:41If you said that after the man she loved died, she chose to dedicate her life to tattooing instead of
07:46marrying someone else.
07:48Women just have the patience and steadiness for this work.
07:52Today, it's the young women who carry it on.
07:55Her grand nieces who learned beside her, a craft that was mostly men's work, now continues through women.
08:07Buscadon didn't really become famous by accident.
08:10Starting from the late 2000s, it gained popularity when people started filming here.
08:16Travel blogs, guidebooks, and it carried on from there.
08:20I guess that's the change I noticed.
08:23Residents work as guides, families run homestays and eateries, a village that mostly farmed, but now runs on visitors too.
08:31Visitors see one side of Buscalan, so I went looking for people who've been here the longest.
08:38I met a woman who told me she's more than a hundred years old.
08:42Not Apo Wang Ol, another woman with her own story.
08:46I met you, Pa ,
08:48Telicia
08:50Delicia
08:50Nice to meet you, Pa
08:52How many years have you changed?
08:55What do you know?
08:57.
08:58.
08:59.
09:03One hundred and five?
09:06One hundred and five?
09:10Wow!
09:15May ibig sabihin po ba yan, tattoo niya?
09:18Sa gawin niyang nakwato'o around, makwato'o at kayo'o.
09:30Nagpatato daw siya, kasi diba dati, ano na nga yung tattoo is duty.
09:35So nagpatato daw siya lang ganyan, para may magkatusto daw sa kanyan.
09:41Nagkustugin siya daw?
09:42Oo.
09:43Kustugin siya daw.
09:45Oo yun. Kasi nagpatato ako, may kumusto sa akin.
09:49Totoo ka?
09:51Totoo!
09:53Oo!
09:54Oo!
09:54Tingnan mo na walak tatay.
09:55Ay, walak niya!
09:57Oo!
09:59Ang patato yan, maraming...
10:01Totoo!
10:03Nagtatato po ba kayo dati?
10:05Siya.
10:05Hindi.
10:08Pero si Apo kang yung...
10:09Yung nagtato siya.
10:11Si Apo.
10:11Si Apo.
10:12Sabi, ka sabi.
10:15Yung sabi sa sabi.
10:15I toni at ang kinakwang.
10:17Sila yung pinakaunang pinatuhan ni Apo.
10:20Wow!
10:21Atakum.
10:23Karayong yung gamit ni Apo.
10:25Karayong?
10:26Hindi pa piyong.
10:27I, itu yung.
10:28Tatlo.
10:29Tatlo na magkakalit.
10:30It's so cute!
10:33Hello!
10:35We have a lot of people here in our neighborhood.
10:40Because we have a lot of people to practice the food.
10:49So many people here are more than 100 people here.
10:55We have a generation of people here.
10:57But there are many people there who have a lot to guide.
11:02This is why I have a lot of people here that I have been in for a long time.
11:08We have a lot of people here in the world.
11:13I hope for a few people, we are able to honor our own parents.
11:18There's no bad things.
11:21They're good.
11:22But when you get hurt,
11:26you should be able to get hurt.
11:29You should be able to get hurt.
11:32When you're in your head,
11:33you should be able to get hurt.
11:38Because it's just not that you have to be able to get hurt.
11:45You should be able to get hurt.
12:12I never met my dad.
12:14All I know is that he was a tattoo artist.
12:18My tattoos are the only thing I have of him.
12:22And you know, the elders here say that the batok is the only thing they will truly inherit
12:28and the only thing that's buried with them.
12:33Last year, someone told me my body looked dirty with tattoos, but out here, it's the
12:40only thing they truly own.
12:46And the one thing that makes you feel beautiful.
12:52I love you.
13:06I love you.
13:09I love you.
13:10I love you.
13:10I love you.
13:12I love you.
13:12I love you.
13:12I love you.
13:12I love you.
