At the Tattoo The Earth festival in Oakland, CA, on August 10, 2002, a man lays down on the floor while the Borneo Headhunters, a group of East Malaysian artists doing traditional Iban tribal tattooing, work on him. Instead of an electric tattoo machine, Iban tattooing uses an inked needle that is pounded into the skin by hand.
National and International tattoo artists and their followers gathered for ÒTattoo the Earth 2002Ó, a festival to promote this body art. Tattoos are considered as art pieces and human skin as the canvas. Most people who invest thousands of dollars in tattoos consider it as an investment in art and some even joke that no one can steal it from them.