Miri Tattoo Festival Puts Borneo Hand-Tapping at the Center of Sunday Program
The Sarawak festival separates machine-work and traditional tattoo contests, while public shows allow people to enter with eligible healed or fresh tattoos.
The fifth Miri International Tattoo Festival runs through Sunday, Nov. 8, at Miri Indoor Stadium in Sarawak. The weekend program moves from machine work on Saturday to a contest devoted to traditional Borneo hand-tapping on Sunday. People who already have tattoos can also enter the separate public shows, subject to the day's rules.
The Sarawak event listing confirms the venue and Nov. 6–8 dates. Kenarau Tattoo Community, the organizer, lists 70 booths for electric equipment and 14 for traditional techniques at the larger venue. Those are booth allocations rather than a count of artists or visitors. The listing also describes food and merchandise stalls outside the hall.
What visitors can see on Saturday and Sunday
The festival program lists a Borneo tribal machine-work contest for Saturday. Other Saturday contests include color and black-and-gray work. Sunday has a Borneo hand-tapping category and a separate traditional tattoo category that accommodates several methods from outside Borneo. The organizer lists Japanese tebori and techniques associated with Mentawai and Kalinga among the methods accepted in that broader category.
The distinction matters to participants. The Sunday Borneo tribal category is restricted to hand-tapping. A tattoo made with a machine can be eligible in the Saturday machine-work category, but it does not meet the Sunday hand-tapping rule simply because it uses a Borneo design. The wider traditional category is defined by how the work is done and is open to other manual methods.
Saturday's public show focuses on Asian backpieces and leg or arm sleeves. Sunday's public show shifts to freestyle backpieces and full leg or arm pieces. Healed and fresh work are eligible for the public show under the organizer's rules. These categories are distinct from the main competition, and prizes in the public show go to the people wearing the tattoos.
The hand-tapping category has a history beyond the festival. The Horniman Museum and Gardens describes Kayan tattoo designs preserved in its collection and says artists interviewed in Borneo still use hand-tapping. It also notes that Kayan tattooing has become rare in Sarawak. The Kayan are one of several Orang Ulu communities. The festival's Borneo category covers a wider region, so the label does not identify any one community or a single set of motifs.
What is judged on the final day
The festival's Best of Show award is judged on Sunday. Eligible work must have started and finished at the festival over the three days. The daily fresh-work categories have a narrower timing requirement: each piece must begin and end on the day it is entered. The organizers specify that those entries cannot be outlined in advance.
The two parts of the schedule offer different ways to attend. The public show gives people with eligible existing work an opportunity to participate without commissioning a new piece at the festival. The main contest shows how the rules change with the technique and the time available to the artist. Friday's program included a Modern Borneo Fusion category, while the weekend program makes a clearer distinction between machine work and traditional methods.
The Sarawak listing does not give admission prices. The organizer publishes different registration windows for the public show and the main contest, so entrants should check the relevant category before travelling to the stadium. The Sunday program brings the traditional Borneo categories and final judging together on the last day.
