 Women with the malu were expected to perform key ceremony tasks and represent their families and villages on ceremonial occasions.However, in 1930, anthropologist Te Rangi Hiroa observed that "...the tattooing of a girl is often used as an opportunity for a student to try his prentice hand.This is also rendered possible by the fact that there is no fusita (fine mat) passed or any of the ceremony that marks the tattooing of the male.