Ah, yes. Curses are a term of convenience that we use to describe strange, seemingly supernatural occurrences that happen on a semi-regular basis. They affect foreigners like ourselves, presumably in relation to our tattoos, but not usually all of us. The best term to broadly define their effects would simply be "bizarre"--earlier this week I found myself attached to another person by the hand, for instance.

[Thankfully this was one of those that doesn't endure for the full duration of the week...]

Supposedly the locals understand "curses" to be a sort of communication from the coral in the plaza, but there's evidence to suggest that they have a more synthetic origin.