Vagina Dentata

Tattooed Ainu woman
9.5 x 6 inches, oil on board, 2018

Tattooed Ainu woman
9.5 x 6 inches, oil on board, 2018

From the Koryak of Kamchatka to the Ainu of Hokkaido, the top 100 continues to locate itself in Northeastern Asia. It's a long 810 mile boat ride but it can be done by hopping the 56 islands of the Kuril chain. It'll be a beautiful boat ride but rather cold. And while you're hopping and dressed for the cold you can continue to hop the Aleutian Islands and arrive in Alaska and you take a train to Fairbanks and from there (I wouldn't know how) to Canada's Arctic Bay which will be the next destination of the top 100. The route follows the trail of female throat singing duets. I've made the journeyat home through cds in warm and cozy Florida: Japan: Ainu Songs on Unesco (Musiques et musiciens du monde), Sibérie 4, Korjak, Kamchatka: Tambours de danse de l'extrême orient-sibérien (Musique du monde), and Canada: Jeux vocaux des Inuit (Inuit du Caribou, Netsilik et Igloolik). I've painted Ainu women before back in 2006. I remember commenting on the hairy features of the Ainu people. I've read that the Ainu are indeed obsessed with hair and the characteristic women's tattoos represent mustaches. A facebook friend posted some pictures recently and commented: "The lips lips look like labia. Women adapted this look to lure men to oral sex in order to keep from getting pregnant every year. This is just the theory of an uninformed idiot. I’m not an anthropologist." (Thank you Barbara) I love this interpretation! The vagina dentata, one of Jung's archetypes, metaphorically designates the Freudian fear of castration.