Steph Big Eagle
This tattoo was hand poked by Steph Big Eagle, a descendant of the Great Sioux Nation tribe. The piece is a thunderbird, also known as a “wakinyan”, which in Sioux culture represents a powerful protective spirit against evil forces, it is considered a symbol of strength, power, and the ability to control weather. Big Eagle’s work represents her connection with her spirituality and when talking specifically about this tattoo she stated that, “a thundercloud rolled over and blessed the grounds with rain and hail (we haven't had rain in weeks) and as that happened Susanne's lovely mother read this excerpt from the book she was reading: "and the thunderbird blessed all the stars with rain.", Susanne, the wearer did not explicitly state why she got the tattoo, but the fact that she sat in a multiple hour session, to get this in the traditional way of hand poking, which to most people is significantly more painful than contemporary tattoo guns, one could assume that she has a deep connection with her heritage and wanted to feel the same physical pain her ancestors did in order to feel even more connected to them.
This piece done by Big Eagle is of the traditional Mountain Maidu Tribe's "Creator's Eye",which is a protection design, Handpoked by Big Eagle for Karen, the wearer. Although Big Eagle is not from the same tribe as the wearer, their connection that they share to their respective cultures and ancestors is something that may have brought the two together. Hand poke tattoos are not exclusive to the Sioux nation, they have been done for thousands of years by many Indigenous tribes. The time, attention, and pain required to get one of these tattoos also speaks to the idea that art in many Indigenous cultures, is not always about the outcome, but also about the journey, the materials, or in this case the body, and the work done to achieve the final result. There are many designs across many different Native tribes that each have their own meaning, and by big Eagle bringing these designs into new light by permanently placing them onto someone’s body speaks to her ideology that visual literacy in Native cultures still deserves a space and a voice, and is still important to people today.