Chinese women peel away stigmas as tattoos become cool
the mark of criminals or sex workers, for centuries tattoos have been stigmatised in China but the growing influence of celebrity culture is changing all that – particularly for women.
Nowhere is the trend more evident than in Shanghai, China’s most cosmopolitan city and recently dubbed “China’s tattoo mecca” by the country’s state media.
Body art for women has long been frowned upon in socially conservative China, but studios are mushrooming.
Zhuo Danting, considered
SHANGHAI:Once
one of China’s top tattoo artists, has witnessed first-hand how the industry has exploded. The 35-year-old has 70% of her body tattooed and has been operating her own Shanghai studio for 11 years.
Inspired by celebrities and sports stars, unprecedented numbers of mostly younger Chinese are getting inked, Zhuo said at her shop, Shanghai Tattoo.
In imperial times, convicts were sometimes tattooed as a lifelong reminder of their crimes, and tattoos later were used by Chinese triads to signify gang loyalties.
But Zhuo said attitudes towards women with tattoos have changed rapidly in the last three years, and the Chinese are increasingly experimenting with their body art.
The trend has spawned extreme examples, including a couple in northeastern China who covered themselves in patriotic artwork, including a Chinese flag on the man’s face.
Tattoos are still frowned upon in government positions and at many companies, however, while some complain that their partners object. AFP