The Samoan Islands were first seen by Europeans in 1722 when three Dutch ships commanded by Jacob Roggewein visited the eastern island known as Manua. A member of Roggewein's expedition described the natives in these words:

"They are friendly in their speech and courteous in their behavior, with no apparent trace of wildness or savagery. They do not paint themselves, as do the natives of some other islands, but on the lower part of the body they wear artfully woven silk tights or knee breeches. They are altogether the most charming and polite natives we have seen in all of the SouthSeas."

The Dutch ships lay at anchor off the islands for several days, but members of the crew did not venture ashore and apparently did not even get close enough to the natives to realize that they were not wearing silk breeches, but tattooing on their legs.

The second European expedition which visited Samoa was led by the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bouganville, who stopped briefly in 1768. Like Roggewein, he was careful not to get too close to the natives. He admired the skill with which the Samoans navigated their canoes but reported that they were ill-mannered compared to the Tahitians, and thought it curious "that their thighs to below the knees were painted a deep blue."

The first Europeans who set foot on Samoan soil were members of the 1787 French expedition commanded by Jan Francoise de la Perouse. La Perouse got a closer look at the natives and reported that "the men have their thighs painted or tattooed in such a way that one would think them clothed, although they are almost naked."

Historian N.A. Rowe, writing in 1930, reported that "it is satisfactory to record that, despite the attempted prohibitions of the missionaries, tattooing is again practically universal; the native pastors being almost the sole exception."

The definitive accounts of traditional native life and art were written by Germans in the colonial service about the turn of the century . Carl Marquardt's ,Die Tätowirung in Samoa (1899) contains a description of the process and drawings of the traditional tattoo motifs together with a list of their names and meanings. The classic account of traditional native life is Die Samoa-Inseln by Augustin Kramer, published in 1903. Kramer was a German physician and anthropologist who spent several years studying the language, culture, and natural history of Samoa. His two volume masterpiece includes a lengthy description of Samoan tattooing.

Kramer reported that an area about the size of a hand was tattooed in an hour, and the operation would then be continued the following week, so that a tattoo took several months to complete. The entire procedure followed a strict ritual. Each part of the design had a name, and each part was tattooed in a predetermined sequence, starting at the waist and progressing down to the knees. The genitals were tattooed during the second session. This was the most difficult part of the operation for both the tattoo artist and the young man being tattooed. Kramer reported that ³the tattoo artist must have good assistants when he works in this area, for penetrating the crack between the buttocks requires great skill and perseverance, as does the tattooing of the anus, the perineum, the scrotum, and the penis, including the glans. This part of the operation is always very unpleasant.

As may be imagined there were a few cowards who wished to avoid this test of manhood, but without tattooing they were social pariahs. Women ridiculed them, and no father would accept an untattooed man as a mate for his daughter.

Samoan tattooing was filmed for the first time in 1925 by pioneer documentary film maker Robert Flaherty. After spending two years filming the traditional life of the native Samoans, Flaherty felt that he had most of the footage he needed. The only thing lacking was a climax. Instead of contriving a Hollywood ending , Flaherty looked for a dramatic incident which followed logically from the sequences he had already filmed. Up to this point the film followed typical events in the life of a young Samoan man, Moana, who was shown fishing, hunting, canoeing, feasting, and courting a young girl. The next natural even in Moana's life was tattooing. Flaherty persuaded Ta'avale, the young Samoan who played the part of Moana, to submit to the operation and arranged for the services of an old tufuga (tattoo artist) to do the work.

Flaherty's wife Frances described the tattooing in these words:The tufuga is a great chief and tattooing is a very expensive affair, attended with great ceremony. To the Samoan man, it is the crucial event in a lifetime, from which all other happenings are dated. Until he is tattooed, no matter how old he may be, the Samoan man is still considered and treated as a boy...Tattooing is the beautification of the body by a race who, without metals, without clay, express their feelings for beauty in the perfection of their own glorious bodies. Deeper than that, however, is its spring in a common human need, the need for struggle and for some test of endurance, some supreme mark of individual worth and proof of the quality of the man. ... What is it that can keep alive the spirit of man but his own respect for what he is - the God that is within him? And so it is that tattooing stands for valor and courage and all those qualities in which man takes pride.

References:
Ellison, Joseph W. 1938. The Opening and Penetration of Foreign Influence in Samoa to 1880.
Griffith, Richard. 1953. The World of Robert Flaherty. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce.
Kramer, Augustin F. 1903. Die Samoa Inseln. 2 vols.
Marquardt, Karl. 1984. The Tattooing of Both Sexes in Samoa. (translated by Sybil Ferner)
Papakura, New Zealand: R. McMillan.
O'Brien, Frederick. White Shadows in the South Seas. London: T. Werner Laurie.
Rowe, Newton A. Samoa Under the Sailing Gods.
Rotha, Paul. 1983. Robert J. Flaherty: A Biography. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.