The materials used are vermilion, indigo, carbon, or gunpowder.

At one time this custom was used in the East to indicate caste and citizenship.
Both sexes of the Sandwich Islanders have a peculiar tattooed mark indicative of their tribe or district.

Among the Uapes, one tribe, the Tucanoes, have three vertical blue lines.

Among other people tattooed marks indicated servility, and Boyle says the Kyans, Pakatans, and Kermowits alone, among the Borneo people, practised tattooing, and adds that these races are the least esteemed for bravery.

Of the Fijians the women alone are tattooed, possibly as a method of adornment.
The tattooing of the people of Otaheite, seen by Cook, was surmised by him to have a religious significance, as it presented in many instances "squares, circles, crescents, and ill-designed representations of men and dogs." Every one of these people was tattooed upon reaching majority.