Facial scarification and tattooing on Santa Catalina Island (Solomon Islands)

Ritual scarification is the culturally sanctioned process of incising the skin to achieve patterned scars. Scarification was practiced widely by traditional societies, but the encroachment of Western cultural expectations has made the practice increasingly uncommon. Ritual tattooing has a meaningful place in many traditional societies. Ritual scarification and tattooing are still found on Santa Catalina Island, an isolated member of the Solomon Islands in the south-west Pacific.