By Christian Allaire, Photo: Ash Adams, Vogue, March 8, 2022
When she was 14 years old, Quannah Chasinghorse decided she wanted a traditional Indigenous face tattoo. The Hän Gwich’in and Oglala Lakota model—who has since, at age 19, made an impression on the fashion world after starring in Gucci campaigns and landing a Vogue Mexico cover—had grown up in Fairbanks, Alaska, seeing images of her ancestors wearing the three distinct chin lines called Yidįįłtoo. She asked her mother, Jody Potts-Joseph, if she would do the markings for her, using the traditional stick-and-poke technique to apply the ink. Though Potts-Joseph had never tattooed anyone before, she agreed. After sterilizing one of the skin-sewing needles that she normally used for hide projects, attaching it to a pen, and dipping it into a pot of gray ink, she got to work. “It was a powerful healing moment for my daughter,” says Potts-Joseph. “As I finished the tattoo, I felt that every poke provided Quannah with an immense amount of strength and power.”
A few months after doing Chasinghorse’s first tattoo, Potts-Joseph was inspired to reclaim the Yidįįłtoo for herself. She enlisted her oldest son, Izzy, who was 16 at the time, to do her own chin tattoos. As a single mom raising three children, Potts-Joseph says she and her daughter receiving their tattoos together brought the whole family closer; in a way, it allowed for a sense of healing after they had endured financial and personal hardships. “These tattoos really helped us find our strengths during a time that our family really needed it,” Potts-Joseph says. The markings were not only a proud symbol of Indigeneity, but they became a symbol of resiliency. In Alaska, an increasing number of Native women are carrying this idea forward, reclaiming the Yidįįłtoo and giving it a special new meaning.
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