INUVIK - Everybody who's ever been to a rock concert - or even stood in line at North Mart waiting for groceries - knows tattoos and piercings are getting more common.

This portrait, displayed at Inuvik's Centennial Library, shows the late Susy Tiktalik from Sachs Harbour. Faint traditional tattoo lines can be seen across her face. - Philippe Morin/NNSL photo

Tattoo parlors are today a booming business, and it seems that everybody and their mother has a Celtic armband, Chinese symbol, koi fish, skull-and-bones or lower-back butterfly.

But while tattoos have become a part of today's mass consumer culture, they also have an aboriginal history.

Long before the arrival of white settlers, the Inuvialuit people of the Beaufort Delta tattooed themselves.

Many Inuvialuit people even practiced facial piercing with stone or ivory plugs, which rivals any modern "body modification" such as gauging. (The practice of stretching a piercing - perhaps an earlobe - until it becomes a large hole.)

Emily Kudlak, from Ulukhaktok, remembers her great-grandmother had tattoo stripes across her face and arms.

Today, the community's school is named after the woman, Helen Kalvak.

And while Kudlak remembers seeing some tattooed elders in her lifetime - another example is family friend Mimi Mamayaok, who came from the eastern arctic had had many lines across her face - Kudlak said the tradition has largely been lost.

Despite being the community's resident expert on Inuvialuit dialects, Kudlak said she doesn't know what the tattoos meant.

All she knows is that women seemed to be the only ones tattooed, while men tended to have piercings.

Cathy Cockney, of the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre in Inuvik, said traditional tattoos were perhaps a ritual.

While most tattoos are created through needle tapping, she said the Inuvialuit used sutures.

A piece of sinew would be dipped in ash and "threaded" under the skin, to create straight lines.

"Long ago they used Qulliks (seal-oil lamps) so they would rub the sinew until it was black," she said.

Cockney said the ICRC's Inuvik library holds archival photos of women with facial tattoos, and men with piercings.

The centre also displays two stone "labrets," which would have been worn through a man's cheeks, chin or lower lip.

"There was stone, ivory and bone, but I think they preferred to use ivory," said Cockney, adding the pieces are quite heavy.

Since many cultures use piercing as an initiation and a rite a passage, Cockney said it's possible the Inuvialuit did as well.

Perhaps the piercings marked a first kill, or marriage. It's not really known.

"You don't see very young kids with them, so perhaps it was an initiation," she said.

Interestingly enough, Cockney added Inuvialuit people did not traditionally wear earrings.

This was a contribution of settlers, who pushed their religious and cultural views on the Inuvialuit and discouraged the practice of facial piercings and tattoos.

Sandra Ipana, who teaches Inuvialuktun at Sir Alexander Mackenzie primary school in Inuvik, said her own mother had traditional tattoos.

However, Ipana said her mother seemed embarrassed to speak about them.

"Mom didn't have any on her face, but on her hands," she said.

"I once asked her what it meant, but it's like she didn't want to talk about it."

On June 26, Inuvik had a visiting tattoo artist, who was busy inking clients. .

Upon being shown a picture of Susie Tingtalik, with her vertical stripe face lines, Uwe Vullings seemed really interested.

"I was aware they did tattoos, but I had never seen this, it's very cool," he said.

He then scanned the photo and added it to his digital scrapbook.

When asked what he thought about traditional tattoos, Vullings said it was a fascinating history.

"People tend to think of tattoos as something for people who are in prison, or sailors, or bikers, but they need to be educated. It goes so far beyond," he said.

And while Vullings would not tattoo a face - he said this is taboo for most artists - he said he could understand the traditional practice.

"When it's part of the culture, it's more specific and it has genuine meaning," he said.

Vullings' wife, piercer Mel Emdee, had never seen stone labrets like the ones Inuvialuit people wore.

And while young people still pierce their faces - Emdee even installed a small labret in Inuvik during her stay - she said the reasons might have changed.

"I think in modern culture it's more for the shock value," she said.

Cockney said the lack of knowledge is just another sign Inuvialuit kids should talk to their elders.

With the older generation fast disappearing, she said, young people should ask about their language, culture and even things like piercings and facial tattoos.

Our culture has changed so much, and young people should be interested in learning about that," she said.

While "body modification" sometimes causes arguments between youth and their parents, it's interesting to think that some northerners' great-grandmothers and grandfathers - as well as countless generations of hunters before them - might have been tattooed or heavily pierced.