East Tattoo in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan rarely fails to turn the heads of passersby, not only because of the shop’s décor—a figurine of Guan Yu (關羽), a deified general from ancient China, sits amid large sculptures of Buddha heads, life-size skulls and photos of human bodies covered with various tattoos—but also for the tattooing service it offers.
For a long time, tattoos have been associated with gangsters, bar “hostesses” and others on the margins of Taiwan’s society. To a great extent, the perception was not unfounded, says Yang Chin-hsiang (楊金祥), who opened East Tattoo about 20 years ago, but as society has opened up, tattoos are beginning to be seen as a means of self-expression. Now, the vast majority of Yang’s customers are everyday people, including parents, who sometimes come to the studio along with their children, the 45-year-old tattooist says.
According to Yang, a significant shift in public attitudes began about 10 years ago. It was around that time that college-educated Kao Chia-hua (高嘉華), now 30 and one of the four tattooists in the shop, began to learn tattooing from Yang. “My mother had strong doubts about my choice of the trade, as in most people’s minds tattoo studios are disreputable places,” Kao says. The doubt gradually dissolved after her mother visited Yang’s store and gained a better understanding of her daughter’s career. “Now she’s glad that I made the choice and can make a living with these specialized skills.” Tattoo prices vary according to the tattooist and the size and complexity of designs, but start at about NT$1,000 (US$30) for a small, simple image.
Kao, the only female tattooist at the studio, specializes in Western-style tattoos, whereas her three other colleagues focus on traditional designs. The two major tattoo styles differ mainly in subject matter: In Taiwan, traditional tattoos are those that use images mainly from Chinese or Japanese culture or religion, such as Buddhism, or auspicious symbols such as dragons and phoenixes. Western-style means images local people associate with Western culture such as roses or crosses. In addition, Kao notes that traditional tattooists tend to use bold black lines which make the tattoo wearer look “tougher,” and follow certain rules regarding color arrangement such as using sharply contrasting colors.
A tattoo of Ji Gong by Yang Chin-hsiang (Photo Courtesy of Yang Chin-hsiang)
Individual Expression
As tattoos have become more of a statement of individuality, clients have become more discerning aesthetically and more assertive about what they want on their bodies. “In the past, many people who got a tattoo did so without thinking too much about it. They did it just to blend in with their peers, and tattooists were less professional, too,” says Wu Te-chin (吳德清), another tattooist at East Tattoo. “The result was that most of those with tattoos regretted getting them,” says Wu, tattoo machine in hand, ready to revise a customer’s 10-year-old design.
Today, customers usually give the tattooist a general idea of what they have in mind and the two develop the final design together, Kao says. Often tattoos have very personal meanings. “One couple tried to have a child for many years. This year they finally succeeded, and their boy’s name is Bee, so the woman had a bee done on her arm,” she says.
Tattooists in Taiwan have been able to improve their skills as opportunities to learn from each other have increased, and more structured training for young people starting out in the trade has become available, whereas in the past tattooists learned the skills mostly on their own. Back in the early 1980s, for example, Yang began his tattooing education by asking blue-collar workers about their tattoos, learning about common designs and other rudimentary information such as how to take care of the skin and the tools used to make and color images. Before long, he was experimenting on his friends and himself. He made only limited progress, however, until he came across an American tattoo magazine in the early 1990s, which prompted him to visit a number of tattoo shows in that country. The trip brought him into contact with many tattooists and gave him the chance to study their techniques. A few years later, he opened East Tattoo while continuing to travel abroad and meet people in the business, notably in Europe, Japan and the United States.
When tattooist Yang Ching-hui (楊清暉), 29, began to learn about the trade in the mid-1990s, he used an eyebrow-tattooing device, a gift from his father that cost about NT$3,000 (US$113 at the exchange rate then), and at one point practiced on pig skin. These days he uses a professional tattoo machine costing more than NT$20,000 (US$667). The tattooist, who is based in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan, says he has also benefited a lot from trips overseas. “Many of the tattoos I have are contributions from tattooists in Taiwan and abroad. I liked their style and creativity, so I asked them to leave something on my body,” Yang says of the “souvenirs” he collected as he compared notes with other tattooists.
Chen Shih-yung tattoos a traditional design featuring a dragon on a Swiss customer in his studio in Hsinchu. (Photo Courtesy of Chen Shih-yung)
Today, some local studios offer apprenticeships to those wishing to become tattooists. East Tattoo has accepted five apprentices in the past 10 years, although one was unable to complete the training. The length of the apprenticeship depends on how quickly trainees pick up the skills, Yang Chin-hsiang says, but around three years is not uncommon. Trainees hone their drawing skills for many months, although they still usually practice on themselves, as the studio owner did. “You need a lot of experience before you can tattoo a customer,” Kao says. Not only do apprentices gain the benefit of their teacher’s knowledge, but they can also make use of the studio’s specialized equipment.
Meanwhile, the first Taiwan Tattoo Convention took place in Kaohsiung in 2010. The event for tattooists and tattoo lovers has been held every spring since then. The show is organized by Top Tattoo, a Kaohsiung studio founded by Chen Yun-tai (陳運泰), and involved more than 200 tattooists from some 20 countries this past April. Three years ago, about 70 tattooists from five countries took part. Chen says this year’s event attracted about 6,000 visitors, and the income generated through ticket sales surpassed expenditures for the first time. The three-day show included numerous contests, with awards granted in 16 categories. Criteria for winning the honors included creativity and the composition of the designs, says Yang Ching-hui, one of the judges in the “traditional large design on the back” category.
Name in Ink
Taiwanese tattooists are also making a name for themselves abroad. Starting in 2008, Yang Chin-hsiang spent nine months, on and off, creating tattoos covering the whole back of a client from Chiayi, southern Taiwan. The work, which portrayed Ji Gong (濟公), a legendary monk from the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), won the top award in the black and grey category at the Milano Tattoo Convention in Italy the following year. At the same event fellow tattooist Chen Shih-yung (陳世勇), who is based in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, won the top honor in the color category with a design of the undersea world. A 78-minute documentary released in 2012 titled Inky Soul chronicles Yang Chin-hsiang’s path to international recognition, as well as the stories of Chen Shih-yung and Kao, one of the few female tattooists in Taiwan.
Another prizewinner is Yang Ching-hui, better known internationally as Hori Hui, whose creation of a large tattoo of Ragaraja, an Esoteric Buddhist deity, on the back of a client from Taipei won the Best Back award and the top award in the oriental category at the Surf N’ Ink Tattoo Festival in Australia in January this year. The work impressed not only the judges, but also tattoo lovers visiting the event such as Bond Chen (陳建邦). “I was just overwhelmed,” the young Hong Kong man says of his first sight of the award-winning tattoo. In fact, he was so impressed that he asked Yang Ching-hui to tattoo his calf at the festival, with the work winning the Best of Friday award, so named for the day on which it was created at the three-day event. Later, the 26-year-old Hong Konger decided to quit his job as a teppanyaki chef in Australia, where he had lived for eight years, and moved to Taoyuan in July to study tattooing with Yang Ching-hui.
Yang Chin-hsiang. Back in the early 1980s, the tattooist learned the basics of tattooing completely on his own. Today it is much easier for people to learn the trade through an apprenticeship. (Photo Courtesy of Yang Chin-hsiang)
Both Yang Chin-hsiang and Yang Ching-hui are quite active at overseas events. They often take part in tattoo exhibitions, where they display their works, interact with tattooists from around the world and offer tattooing services. At the same time, Yang Chin-hsiang’s studio hosts foreign tattooists, who work at East Tattoo for a limited period. The studio had already featured a tattooist from France in spring this year, while a Belgian tattoo master was scheduled to visit for three weeks starting in mid-November.
Given the increasing popularity of tattoos in Taiwan, East Tattoo opened a second branch named Ink Life early this year in Shimen District, New Taipei City. The new operation has a relaxed atmosphere and offers professional services from 12 tattooists from around Taiwan (including the staff from East Tattoo), who are available on a rotating basis.
One of those tattooists is Liu Yi-yung (劉逸永), who is based in Pingtung County at the southern tip of Taiwan. Liu’s work has been acclaimed at the Taiwan Tattoo Convention, winning the award in the large color design category in 2011 for an image portraying the legendary Chinese ghost catcher Chung Kuei (鍾馗), and the prize in the best full arm category in 2012 with a design that featured motifs related to Lunar New Year festivities. The 2011 work was completed along the arm of his apprentice; the 2012 design appeared on his wife’s arm.
Despite the artistry of such work, Liu says that the negative image of tattoos lingers, especially in Taiwan’s rural areas. “I find that tattoos are still not widely accepted in my rural hometown in southern Taiwan and that’s why my wife hesitated about having a large design on her whole arm,” he says. The bias is also why Liu regularly travels to East Tattoo’s branch in northern Taiwan in order to gain more business.
In fact, although public opinion about tattoos is gradually becoming more favorable, tattooists advise people who would like to give it a try to think before they get inked. “We don’t offer services to customers under 20, as they tend to get a tattoo on impulse,” Yang Chin-hsiang says of one of his store’s policies. He says people should make a mature decision as tattoos are extremely hard to remove completely, especially if they are colored. It is okay for self-employed people and those working in creative occupations to have tattoos that are readily seen, says Kao, but until tattoos are thoroughly accepted by society she suggests those who must frequently interact with the general public get tattoos that can be easily hidden by clothing. “And I dissuade people from having their lovers’ name or portrait done because such an act causes too much pressure on both sides and usually leads to the couple splitting up,” says Kao, who once had to help a man change a portrait of his girlfriend on his back into a human skull following the end of the relationship.
Yang Ching-hui’s tattoo of Ragaraja, an Esoteric Buddhist deity, won an award in Australia earlier this year. (Photo Courtesy of Yang Ching-hui)
Grey Area
The legal status of tattoo studios is another issue for tattooists. Although the sector has been around for a long time in Taiwan, local tattoo shops are unregulated, with most registering as something else, such as a beauty salon. To begin with, the dyes are not easily categorized in the legal code, according to the Taipei City Government. Moreover, tattooing “is invasive, but not so invasive,” so the practice itself occupies a legal grey area, Kao says.
Taipei and Kaohsiung city governments have begun to address the issue by organizing voluntary classes in safety and workplace hygiene for tattooists, complete with certificates if they finish the training. Taipei City Government’s Department of Health, which began offering such training in 2006, planned to begin discussions on regulating the sector at the end of August this year. The department’s research is likely to be used as a reference by the central government when it decides to act on the issue.
Kao says it is important to legalize the sector and regulate tattooists so that customers can identify professional studios. All of the tattooists at East Tattoo, for example, have taken workplace training offered by the Kaohsiung City Government, and wear gloves and use disposable needles in order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
Although tattoos are still somewhat stigmatized, Kao says public opinion is changing. “Today, people pay attention to my tattoos because they are curious about them—Does it hurt? Where did you get these beautiful tattoos done?—not because they have a negative opinion about it,” says Kao, who sports a tattoo along the length of one arm. Getting a tattoo definitely hurts, she says, but the pain is much like that felt from grazing the pavement after falling from a scooter. Interestingly, she says women are usually much better able to bear the discomfort than men. “But such pain is a wondrous thing. After you go through it, you feel fulfilled. We have many return customers asking for more tattoos because of the pain,” she says.
Yang Chin-hsiang admits that most people only have a superficial admiration of tattooing and still balk at the idea of getting a tattoo themselves or allowing their children to do so. That attitude motivates the tattooist to keep creating high-quality works. “I hope tattoos in Taiwan can win even wider recognition and respect as an art form, and that when talking about tattooing in Asia, people in the West think not only of Japan, but also of Taiwan,” Yang says.
Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw