Traveled to Buscalan, the tiny remote village in the Kalinga mountains turned pilgrimage site thanks to Whang Od, the 104-year old mambabatok who kept the thousand-year-old tattooing tradition alive. We were there to see how the pandemic affected the residents of Buscalan, which remains closed to tourism. After a short but arduous climb through the rice terraces (much of the road has been paved) we found out Whang Od was moved to another location. But we did meet the next generation of mambabatok (mambaba-TikTok?), most of them learning the craft in 2018 after the tourism boom. Without the influx of foreigners and outsiders looking to get inked, however, many returned to farming. It happened to be anihan, the harvest season, and it was a privilege to witness how the men, women, and kids of the community worked together to clear the rice fields. The future of Kalinga’s tattoo culture is still uncertain, as there’s only so much these kids can do, practicing on themselves and each other