Maori visual art consists mostly of four forms: carving, tattooing (ta moko), weaving and painting. Carving was done in three media: wood, bone and stone. Wood carving was used to decorate houses, fence poles, weapons and many other objects. The most popular type of stone used in carvings was greenstone. Stone and bone were used to make jewelry and different kinds of tools. Carving was traditionally performed by men only.
Traditional tattooing or ta moko is widely popular aspect of their art. James Cook wrote in 1769: “The marks in general are spirals drawn with great nicety and even elegance. One side corresponds with the other. The marks on the body resemble foliage in old chased ornaments, convolutions of filigree work, but in these they have such a luxury of forms that of a hundred which at first appeared exactly the same no two were formed alike on close examination.”