An Indigenous tattoo artist named Apo Whang-Od is featured in the April edition of Vogue Philippines. Apo Whang-Od is from Buscalan, a secluded community located in the hilly region of the Kalinga province in the northern Philippines.

Whang-Od, who celebrated her 106th birthday in February, has surpassed Judi Dench to become the oldest person to ever appear on the cover of Vogue. Dench was featured in the June 2020 issue of British Vogue when she was 85 years old.

When she was 16 years old, the centenarian has been getting hand-taped tattoos. According to Vogue, she got her start in the business with the guidance of her father, carrying on the “batok” tradition that dates back a thousand years in the Philippines.

In the early days of Kalinga’s history, the headhunters of the region utilized a traditional kind of tattooing known as batok as a status mark on their bodies.

Yet, Whang-Od, one of the few remaining traditional Kalinga tattooists, is said to have inked more ladies than soldiers, as stated in Vogue.

At that time period, males were tattooed to signify their courage, while women were marked mostly for the sake of fertility and aesthetics.

But, when beauty standards that were centered on the West began to find their way into society, fewer young girls and women showed interest in learning about and passing down the custom of batok, and the number of individuals participating in the practice decreased day by day.

But, during the last fifteen years or more, travelers from all over the globe have been traveling to Buscalan in the hopes of getting the traditional ink used by Whang-Od, who is also known as Maria Oggay, tattooed into their bodies.

According to Bea Valdes, editor-in-chief of Vogue Philippines, the choice to put Whang-Od on the cover was made by the editorial staff as a whole.

“We think that the idea of beauty has to develop and expand to accommodate a variety of different and welcoming shapes of the human face. The amazing qualities that people possess will be the subject of our discussion “Valdes remarked, citing CNN.

Whang-Od has been teaching her grandnieces how to play batok so that the tradition may continue even though the talent can only be handed down via a family’s genetic lineage.

“When guests arrive from far away, I will give them the mark of Buscalan, the mark of Kalinga for as long as my eyes can see,” Whang-Od told Vogue. “I will give them the mark of Buscalan, the mark of Kalinga for as long as my eyes can see.”