BAGUIO CITY — "This is so inappropriate, another exploitative situation. Let her live in peace sharing and doing culture of traditional tattoo. Marami na siyang traditional tattoo, why inking her?

Dapat di na yan ina allow. If there's no such cultural relevance. Icon yan eh," said a young traditional tattoo artist from Kalinga on the recent viral post of a lady from Europe tattooing the famous Kalinga traditional tattoo artist Apo Whang-od in Buscalan, Tinglayan, Kalinga.

While some viewed the exchange as a "meeting of masters," Kalinga traditional tattoo artist Ammin Acha-ur said the act is not merely about ink on skin; it is about the sanctity of the body and the hierarchy of indigenous tradition. She stressed it crosses a line from appreciation into a lack of cultural sensitivity.

Ammin is a famous Baguio-based Kalinga traditional tattoo artist belonging to the Butbut tribe. She is a dedicated "mambabatok" advocating the preservation of the Kalinga "Batok" or the hand-tapped tattoo.

"Our elders are the keepers of our soul. To see a foreigner use her skin as a canvas for a style that is not ours feels like a displacement of our identity," Acha-ur shared, in a sentiment echoed across local social media circles. She emphasized that Whang-od is more than a tourist attraction; she is a vessel of ancestral history.

Acha-ur raised subtle questions regarding the ethics of tattooing a centenarian, noting that the skin of an elder requires a level of care and traditional understanding that a modern machine artist might overlook in the pursuit of a "viral moment."