Baldur's Gate 3 Appropriates Sacred Indigenous Tattoos
I was so disappointed to boot up the character creation for Baldur's Gate 3's full release, only to see they added tattoo designs that are very clearly copying from sacred tattooing practices of the Inuit and the Māori.
^ This is clearly copying Tunniit.
^ This is clearly copying Tā moko.
Please do not use these tattoos. Larian should never have included these designs. I personally plan on modding them out of the game at the first opportunity.
another day in the colonies where video game devs appropriate without care
i still get angry about phasmophobia and how now every gamer wasicu is using the word ‘smudging’ without having any context
i can't speak for inuit so i'm obviously not gonna comment on tunniit being appropriated but in regards to tā moko, since this comes up literally every time our imagery gets appropriated without fail i'll explain to people in the notes who seem confused (and quite hostile actually!) about why this isn't "representation"
first of all, tā moko is sacred. each moko is unique and you're able to trace where you're from, your family, your ancestors, your status, your career/life path (my moko shows other māori that i'm an artist for example! when i add onto it next it'll show that my mother is a musician) and more. it takes an extremely long time to become a qualified moko artist because you have to learn how to show all of these things using specific cultural imagery. it's also drawn freehand onto the skin to fit you perfectly compared to being designed in advance on paper like other tattoos. it is extremely rude to steal someone's moko for Cool Imagery because - sacredness aside - you're copying something completely unique to that person.
in particular facial moko are the most common choices to get lifted by video games as they're the most striking and recognisable. they are also particularly sacred and something that generally requires your community to decide you've "earned" it as they're heavily representative of leadership and respect. not that tā moko in general is something to be taken lightly but face moko is a HUGE step.
and look, a lot of people will disagree on how representation of tā moko should be shown in media. hell, some māori disagree with my choice to portray some of my characters with tā moko and i get where they're coming from! personally i think it's okay to have tā moko in a game if the developers specifically work with and commission a qualified moko artist for a design to match a specific māori character. inversely i think it's not okay to have tā moko as a cookie cutter customisation choice to add to an empty-slate player character. only māori are allowed to get tā moko and it's inappropriate for something so sacred to be available for any random person to make their character look cool. i don't even know a single māori who'd want to use a random moko. like again they're personalised. it'd be shallow and... i dunno, empty. meaningless. i truly have no idea how you would even design tā moko for a blank slate character.
and you know what? none of those nuances between opinions held by māori even matter here! because while these tattoos are clearly appropriative (the kauae/chin moko more obviously so), these are not real tā moko. the symbols are random spirals and lines that are trying to mimic our cultural imagery. there are design choices with both of the tattoos shown here that are leagues beyond just "clumsy", they're specifically stomping on actual moko (e.g. not leaving a blank space down the centre of the face to represent values that are fundamentally ingrained into māori culture and history).
there is a complete lack of understanding of māori art theory in these designs and a complete lack of research done on even the absolute most basic (googleable!) things here. this is not representation, this is a team of people deciding that scary tribal tattoos look cool for their video game.
so i have to ask: why do so many people in the notes of this post (and many other posts that point out appropriation of cultural tattoos) think that we deserve a bullshit knockoff of our sacred practices as "representation"? we've gone through centuries of tā moko being targeted, colonised, systematically destroyed, made illegal, stereotyped as violent criminal/gang tats, decades more of reviving and reclaiming what's rightfully ours no matter the cost (speaking from experience my moko has opened me up to a hell of a lot of racist hatecriming), just to get them time and time again mangled and thrown back at us by AAA companies making millions of dollars off of their games because some dumb fucks in their design studio thought that tribal warrior tats look sick.
why do you think we would want this?
most importantly, why are you speaking for us? if you're saying shit like "wow everyone is so sensitive, what about the people who want representation? what about the māori that want this? 🙄" i would suggest that you think inwardly about why you feel so comfortable speaking for a group of people who did not ask to be spoken for. we're right here, we can speak for ourselves, thanks.
not sure if anyone has linked it yet but mod to replace them:
Replaces some of the vanilla tattoos with goblin facepaint
