Brass weight in the form of a belu carrying a club in each hand, to insert in end of tattooing pen. The weight would have been inserted into the end of the tube which acted as a holder for the stylus of the tattooing pen itself (see 14.104-8). Some of the aura of power and protection represented by this figure would have been thought to be transferred to the person being tattooed.
pen (tattoo instrument)
Collection Information
These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.
The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.
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