"The marks we choose to wear are the clues to the mystery of ourselves…"

Tracing back more than 2,000 years to the Pacific Islands, tattoo is an ancient art form that began as a rite of passage for Polynesians and has become of form of expression for people worldwide. Featuring traditional tattooing ceremonies, compelling interviews, and a breathtaking collection of tattoo body art, Skin Stories traces the roots of tattoo, highlighting individual stories and the evolution of cultural traditions in the Pacific.

Skin Stories is an anthology of stories and stunning images gathered from the hotspots of Pacific tattoo: from the steaming landscape of Rotorua in New Zealand to the vibrant gathering of the first international tattoo convention in Apia, Samoa; from the terraced, lush taro fields of Maui and golden beaches of Oahu, Hawaii, to the California coast. First aired on PBS in 2003, Skin Stories unearths the personal stories of transformation, both from the tattoo masters and those who receive the marks.


Emiko Omori is a San Francisco-based filmmaker who has been creating documentaries for more than three decades. She first distinguished herself as the Bay area’s first Asian-American news camerawoman and later, for her poignant award-winning documentary Rabbit in the Moon.

Lisa Altieri-Sosa, born and raised in Hawaii, has nearly two decades of television and video production credits and her work focuses on documentaries that educate audiences about environmental and social issues. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and has worked on such documentaries as Kamehameha, a Legacy Renewed and Arirang – The Korean-American Journey.