Indonesian tattooists revive tribal traditions

Australian traditional tattoo artist, Brent McCown uses the "hand tapping" method at a traditional tattoo festival in the village of Maguwoharjo located in Yogyakarta.

Maguwoharjo (Indonesia) (AFP) - Men in tribal dress stand amid dense jungle on the Indonesian island of Java, their bodies covered in elaborate, traditional tattoos inspired by cultures in distant corners of the vast, tropical archipelago.

Many images on display at the recent tattoo festival that brought the men together were not applied with fast, modern machines, but using a centuries-old, tribal method that involves artists gently tapping a stick mounted with a needle on a subject's skin.