Jean-Mary has painted the rainforest vine known as weje along with its thorns, bibe’é. This plant is very important to Ömie people because the thorns are used to make the traditional tattooing tool, which is also known as weje. Tattooing was one of the most important aspects of the ancient Ömie initiation rite, the ujawé. Boys and girls would undergo tattooing in the guai, an underground site. They would emerge as fully initiated men and women prepared for adulthood and marriage within a complex clan and sub-clan system. This practice was stopped by missionaries in the early 20th century. The border and the lines that run through the work are known as orriseegé or ‘pathways’ and provide a compositional framework for the design.