A tattooing instrument comprises a bamboo stick attached to a tattooing comb with fine tips for tapping the dye into the skin. The bamboo stick serves as a handle and is beveled towards the free side lengthwise. Inside the bamboo cane, the vessels running lengthwise can be seen. At the end of the bamboo stick, almost at a right angle, a thin hexagonal elongated leaf made of a horn or tortoiseshell is attached. How did the object come to the Übersee-Museum? The collection was purchased by the museum from Otto Tetens in 1907. Tetens was director of the Samoa Observatory of the Royal Society of Sciences in Göttingen in the colony of German Samoa from 1902 to 1905. Nothing is yet known about the exact circumstances of Tetens' acquisition on site.