“I began to research Sinuye – the traditional tattooing practice for Ainu women. Sinuye has been banned by Japanese law and the few people who paint today only do so on special occasions. In my research, I search out older Ainu people who have seen Sinuye and encourage them to recall their memories of it. My interviewees are very old and only a few of them have actually seen Sinuye in the past. I ask those few who remember it to draw Sinuye on my face as they recall it being done. Through this act I think about Ainu culture, our Ainu history and myself.”