Borneo Rose
From BMEzine Encyclopedia
This class of tattoos, often referred to as Borneo Roses, are based on the stylized flower designs popular among the tribal peoples of Borneo.
Damian McGrath adds:
- On the deltoid region of the shoulders and on the breasts, a rosette or star design is found. It seems in the highest degree probable that the rosette is derived from the eye in the dog pattern, and it is consequently of some interest to find that the name now given to the rosette pattern is that of the fruit of a plant which was introduced into Borneo certainly within the last fifty or sixty years... its Kayan name is jalaut. We have here a good example of the gradual degradation of a design leading to a loss of its original significance and even of its name, another name, which originated probably from some fancied resemblance between pattern and object, being applied at a subsequent date..."
