Polynesian tattoo designs are far more than a mere piece of decorative body art. Tribal art tattoo designs, as often as they're replicated in flash designs, were once seen as a link between man and the gods in Polynesian culture. As legend has it, the Gods taught men the art of tattooing. By being marked through a trial of pain and blood, as the elders claimed, initiates could develop a closer relationship with the spiritual world.