Tongue Tattoo

In the 1820's the Hawaiian Queen Kamamalu received a tongue tattoo to show her grief after her mother in law's death. This was witnessed by a missionary named William Ellis who commented that the queen must be in great pain, she replied; "He eha nui no, he nui roa ra ku‘u aroha." (Great pain indeed, greater is my affection.)
In fact the pigment will hold if tattooed with a syringe. By using an injection method of tattooing the tongue a “forced blow out” can be created under the skin. This is done by injecting the pigment into the "permanent layer" of the skin, as it’s commonly referred to in tattooing. Careful consideration has to be made not to inject the pigment intramuscularly.