Year: 2020
Client: Nas Daily
The Question
Nas Daily, a popular travel YouTuber, was launching a new series spotlighting remarkable people and places around the world. Each episode needed a subject compelling enough to go viral, in keeping with the same punchy, relatable style that Nas Daily is known for.
The Answer
We built a list of “Outliers”, people who live extraordinary lives. We interviewed them and made videos about their stories, so that even a 10-year-old viewer who speaks English as a second language could understand. One of our best-performing episodes was Whang-Od, the world’s oldest tattoo artist. She tattoos by hand, using a method found nowhere else in the world, and she is the last of her kind.
Script:
In the jungles of the Philippines
There is a woman who is 103 years old!
She is the oldest tattoo artist in the world.
And she doesn’t use a tattoo machine
And she doesn’t let you choose your own tattoo!
Who is this woman?
And why do tourists beg her to get a tattoo?
When I was in the Philippines, I met a lot of tourists
who came to the country
not to see the beaches
but to get a tattoo
from the 103 year-old lady!
So I thought to myself
How good could this woman be?
Well…
We chased her down to tell you her story.
She lives 2 days from the capital.
Not 2 hours
Not 2 flights
But 2 full days!
So we flew all the way to the north of the country
Then we had to get on a jeep
And trek for another one full day
Until the next morning…
We arrived here
In the village of Buscalan
Where we found Whang-od.
“Hi Nas! I’m Whang-Od, oldest tattoo artist from Kalinga!”
The way she makes tattoos
Is unlike any other.
First, you do not choose your own design.
You have to pick from these!
Each of them has a different meaning.
This means protection.
This means direction.
And this means long life!
Whang-Od also makes her own ink out of charcoal and water!
She uses her own needles out of thorns from a tree!
She even has her own way of drawing
by tapping the tattoo on your skin like this!
And even though she’s 103 years old
She can tap really really fast
As fast as 100 taps a minute!
This one of a kind tattoo
will only cost you $20
But it’s not just unique or beautiful
It’s also a link to a lost history.
1000 years ago…
There used to be more tattoo makers like Whang-Od
But they didn’t give tattoos to tourists
They gave tattoos to village men and women
to wish them good luck in battle
and good luck in marriage.
Whang-Od was actually the first woman in her village to become a tattoo maker.
But as this tradition dies out
and other tattoo makers passed away
Whang-Od became the last one of her kind…
So she decided to break a thounsand-year-old tradition
By starting to ink tourists!
And now,
hundreds of tourists just like me
go to that village in the middle of nowhere
to get to the world’s most unique tattoo artist!
So even when she dies…
she can keep the tradition alive on the skin of many people
for another 1000 years.
Until then,
you’ll find this 103-year-old woman
sitting here in her room
tapping her way
to the history books.
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