Canada’s First Tattooed Prime Minister

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The United States may still be up in the air about who our next president will be, but on October 19th Canada elected their new Prime Minister, Liberal Justin Trudeau, the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Winning by a landslide, Trudeau is a unique candidate in that he is one of the most radically liberal political candidates that the world has seen in quite some time—Trudeau has openly admitted to smoking weed while serving in Parliament in an interview with Huffington Post Canada, he has plans to appoint a new cabinet with an equal balance of both genders, and, most intriguingly to us, he has a tattoo.

While Trudeau isn’t the first political heavyweight to have a tattoo, his ink certainly does contribute to his image as the face of the Liberal Party of Canada. Trudeau sports a traditional Haida tattoo of a thunderbird, a style based off of the designs of the North American First Nations Tribe.

This style of tattooing is similar to other tribal styles such as Polynesian and Maori, in that each design and every pattern has a specific meaning in Haida culture. These designs were used as a method of communication and are still totems of the values that the First Nations Tribe has. Each animal that is represented in a Haida design represents an important human trait and many people get Haida tattoos as a way to embody the essence of an animal that is valued in Native American culture. A thunderbird, which Justin Trudeau has tattooed on his left bicep, represents power, provision, and unquestioned authority to the First Nations Tribe. Trudeau got this tattoo back in 2012, on his 40th birthday. During this time, Trudeau was running to be the Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. It is arguable that Trudeau got this tattoo, not only to celebrate a milestone birthday but as a way to embody the First Nation’s traits of the thunderbird in order to gain power in the 2013 party election. In any circumstance, Trudeau is one of the many tattoo enthusiasts who have chosen to adorn their bodies in Haida style tattoos, here’s our selection of some of the best Haida tattoos from around the world.