Tattoo is a loanword from the Samoan word "tatau", meaning "to strike". The "Oxford English Dictionary" gives the etymology of tattoo as "In 18th c. tattaow, tattow. From Polynesian (Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, etc.) tatau. In Marquesan, tatu." Before the importation of the Polynesian word, the practice of tattooing had been described in the West as painting, scarring or staining. The etymology of the body modification term is not to be confused with the origins of the word for the military drumbeat or performance — see "military tattoo". In this case, the English word "tattoo" is derived from the Dutch word "taptoe".
Tongan narrative them wives from Pulotu and they became the ancestors of the Tonga people. Tongan narrative Tongan narrative (or Tongan mythology) is a variant of a more general Polynesian narrative in Tonga. In the beginning there was just the sea, and the spirit world, Pulotu; and between them was a rock called Touiao Futuna. On the rock lived Biki and his twin sister, Kele, Atungaki and his twin sister, Maimoao Longona, Fonua'uta and his twin sister, Fonuavai, and Hemoana and his twin sister, Lupe. Biki lay with his own sister and she bore him two children, a son, Taufulifonua, and a