My name is Keith Ansel aka Sarabanda Luna Nueva. I’m a Nganga Nkisi (a healer and diviner) in a Traditional Spiritual Community and Bantu-Kongo Cult of Affliction (by way of Cuba) known as PALO located in New Orleans, LA, and I specialize in Traditional Tattooing.

When I say that I specialize in Traditional Tattoos, I mean it in the sense of what tattoos have always been, before the 20th century, and before the advent of the purely aesthetic style known as “Traditional”. Tattoos traditionally have been utilized as a way of aligning individuals with their path or destiny as a Rite of Passage, as a visual outward sign of membership to a particular group, clan or tribe, to mark an important event for an individual, or to ornament/adorn the body so one feels more like themself. We still use tattoos for these same goals — personally I got a tattoo at 18 as a mostly unconscious rite of passage; that I passed into adulthood and my body is no longer subject to my parents’ wills but is mine to make choices about. An act of adult independence.

Tattoos serve as signs saying you belong to some culture or group: Gang affiliations, sailors, bikers, sports teams, or even the style and placement of the tattoos can serve to identify one as a fan of a particular type of music, art, or profession. People get tattoos for the same reasons as jewelry — to enhance their aesthetic, and showcase expressions of their own tastes. We still mark events and memorials in skin — births, deaths, graduations,  championships, achievements, even passing whimsies.  Before the advent of numbing creams and before tattooing became mainstream, being covered in tattoos showed you are able to handle suffering, you’ve achieved some dominion over pain in your body, and you’re not to be trifled with. People even use tattoos as a way to prove something to themselves, that they can resist overwhelming forces and come out the other side. Our post-modern, ultra capitalist civilization has made it so the contemporary versions of these traditional modes are hollow and materialistic, without a connection to deeper realities (The Ancestral/The White/The Dead/The Metaphysical World/Source). Even the folks who hail tattooing as therapeutic tend to only see its materialistic, physical qualities — the deeper, regular breathing, the dopamine release, not realizing when they’re under the needle that they might only experience being fully present and alive in their mind and body in those moments, only to be re-absorbed into the habits and patterns of their lives once they leave the shop. We’ve been so disconnected from nature that it takes a good deal of pain in a controlled setting to be put in touch with deeper parts of ourselves and our lives.

Tattooing in this society is a job (an amazing one at that), but as a Palero/Nganga Nkisi, I’m a traditional healer who works in the mode of tattooing to deliver medicine. TATTOOS CAN HELP, and not just be a signifier. They should do both. They can do both. Here, tattooing is a way to deliver bespoke, permanent medicine that aligns you with your own path/destiny/what you’re here to do/best suited for, while providing protection.

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