Amongst the primitive arts of the Maori with which "Ringiringi" became familiar about this time was that of _moko_, or tattooing. The _kauae_ tattooing--on chin and lips--was still universal amongst the native women, though few of the men now submitted their faces to the chisel or the needle of the tattooing artist. A popular form of tattooing amongst both sexes was that technically known as _tiki-hopé_, the scroll-patterns on the thighs and other parts of the body usually concealed by the waist-shawl. The white man saw numbers of women as well as men decorated in this fantastic fashion. In fact, he was so thoroughly Maori by this time that he was about to undergo the operation himself, in the winter of 1867, when living at the village Te Paka, near the old fort Otapawa. He had the _ngarahu_, or _kapara_, the blue-black pigment, ready for the dusky engraver, and would shortly have been made pretty for life in Maori eyes had not the tattooing been peremptorily forbidden. "I wanted my face tattooed," says Bent, "for I was as wild as any Maori then. I intended to have the curves called _tiwhana_, or arches, tattooed on my forehead, over the eyes, and the _kawekawe_ lines on the cheeks, extending to the corners of the mouth. What a curiosity I would have been, though, when I came out of the bush! I would have been able to earn my living in my old age, going on exhibition, like the bearded lady in the circus!" It was Te Ua the prophet who forbade the tattooing. He happened to be in residence at Te Paka just then, and he reminded "Ringiringi" that he had _tapu_'d him, and explained that to _moko_ his skin would be a violation of that particular brand of _tapu_. To the white man this was not quite clear; nevertheless, he agreed to obey the prophet's Mosaic command "to make no cuttings" in his flesh, and remained a plain, undecorated _pakeha_.