Not all tattoos carry the same story. Since the world started watching the All Blacks, the haka and the tattoos have come with them into the spotlight. One side effect: people now label almost any Pacific tattoo "Maori." It is usually wrong.

Polynesian tattoos vary widely, and not just because artists have their own hand. The styles come from different islands, different histories, different rules.

Take Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Plenty of articles call his tattoo "Maori." It is not, and that alone is the mistake to avoid if you are going to wear these marks, or write about them.

Tattoos hold deep meaning across Polynesian cultures. If you want one, understanding where it comes from and what it carries is not optional. It is respect. Right now there is a revival happening across the Pacific, with artists reconnecting people to their heritage through traditional symbols and traditional practice. You see it in Tonga, in Fiji, in the Cook Islands, alongside the five styles most people already know.

Those five are Maori, Samoan, Marquesan, Hawaiian and Tahitian. The first four hold closest to tradition. Tahitian has grown into something more figurative, folding in realistic elements for effect, with artists blending traditional symbols and modern, Western influence.

So how do you tell them apart? Each style has a look of its own.

Maori

Round elements, spirals, intricate fills. Thin spiraling lines, with blank space doing real work: shapes are formed by the skin left uninked, not just by the ink.

Marquesan

Geometric, built from large blocks and solid black. Asymmetrical for men, mostly symmetrical for women. The darkest of all the styles.

Samoan

Straight lines, geometric, repetitive, highly symmetrical. Male versions carry solid areas. Female versions run much lighter.

Tahitian

Figurative, smooth, rounded, naturalistic. It blends Marquesan and Samoan roots with modern and Western influence.

Hawaiian

Geometric, built on repetition. Practitioners like Keone Nunes have revived the traditional form, holding to its roots and its original purpose.

Fijian and Tongan tattoos sit close to Samoan, but often bring in flower patterns you would not see in a Samoan design.

So, one more time: what style is Dwayne Johnson's tattoo? Here is the honest answer. People disagree. Some read it as Marquesan. Many read it as Samoan, the culture of his own mother's line, and the symbols in it are read in Samoan: the niu, the sun, the isa/ga fa'atasi. It was inked in Hawaii by a Tahitian artist. Even the experts do not fully agree on the label.

And that is the whole point. If a piece this well known can be argued over, then the least any of us can do is learn the culture a design comes from before we wear it or name it. The respect is in the asking, not in the confidence.

You can name the styles now. The meanings behind them are another story, and one for the next piece.