Ta moko : the art of Māori tattoo / D.R. Simmons.

First ed. published: Auckland, N.Z. : Reed Methuen, 1986.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-175) and index.

Introduction -- pt. I. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MAORI TATTOOTING -- A review of earlier authorities -- The tools and methods -- Design fields and motifs -- pt. II. MALE TATTOOING IN THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY -- The record of Cook's voyages 1769-73 -- Tattooing during Cook's voyages -- De Surville's record in Doubtless Bay in 1769 -- Du Fresne's record for the Bay of Islands in 1772 -- Governor King's record in 1793 for North Cape and the Bay of Islands -- The Duff dried heads of 1796-8 and a possible Cook head -- Regional variation in the eighteenth century -- pt. III. MALE MOKO IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY -- A new fashion in the North, 1793-1824 -- Regional variation in tattooing, 1824-6 -- Augustus Earle in the Bay of Islands, 1827 -- Later records of male tattoo in the nineteenth century -- The portraits of Angas, 1844 -- The Salem portraits -- Later portraits : photographs and the studies of Robley -- Lindauer's portraits -- Goldie's portraits -- pt. IV. FEMALE MOKO -- Eighteenth-century records of Cook and de Surville -- Regional variation in female moko in the eighteenth century -- Early nineteenth-century records : Savage, Cruise, Bellingshausen, Duperrey, d'Urville and Earle -- Mid-nineteenth-century records : Polack, Bidwill, Angas and Shortland -- Later nineteenth-century female moko : Merrett, Robley, Lindauer and Goldie -- Twentieth-century chisel moko -- Needle tattoo of the twentieth century -- pt. V. DISCUSSION -- The place of moko in Maori society -- Te tuhi moko -- Male moko styles -- Female moko styles -- The decline of male moko -- The development of female moko -- APPENDIX -- Te Rangikaheke's manuscript on tattooing.

Ta Moko is an outstanding work of Maori scholarship. The art of Maori tattoo has always been regarded with fascination, and this was one of the first comprehensive books on the subject.