§ Symbol
Borneo rose
Bunga terung
Iban · Borneo (not Polynesian)
The Borneo rose (bunga terung, aubergine flower) is a symbol of the Iban people of Borneo, not Polynesian. It was traditionally a young man's first tattoo, on the front of the shoulders, when setting out on the bejalai, the journey of initiation into adulthood.
§ How I draw it
6 original drawings
None of these drawings gets tattooed as it is. They're the starting point: in the consultation the motif is adapted to your anatomy and to the rest of the piece.
§ Meaning
Passage into adulthood, the journey that makes you.
Worth saying up front: the Borneo rose is not a Polynesian symbol. It's the bunga terung —aubergine flower— of the Iban people of Borneo, in southeast Asia, and it reaches Western tattooing by way of contemporary tribal, not by way of the Pacific.
Among the Iban it was traditionally a young man's first tattoo: a pair of flowers on the front of the shoulders when setting out on the bejalai, the journey on which he left the longhouse to gain experience and came back an adult.
Its central spiral is often explained as a tadpole, an image of life beginning, although not every source agrees on that reading. The spiral relates it visually to the Māori koru, but they are separate traditions. It's here because it's a motif I draw often.
§ How it's drawn
A solid flower with a lobed or star-shaped outline and a spiral or cut-out flower reserved at the centre. Symmetrical and compact; traditionally it goes on the front of the shoulder.
Interested in a piece with this symbol?
In the consultation we work out how it fits your body and your story.
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