Tattoo have a long history in China

Tattoos have been around in Eurasia since at least Neolithic times. They also have a long history in China. Tattoos used to be associated with criminal behaviors, but now it’s becoming popular again after falling out of favor for decades.

Lots of young people today bear tattoos on different parts of their bodies with designs ranging from pretty flowers to scary-looking skulls and ghosts. Let’s hear more from our reporter Manling
“I thought it was fun and my boyfriend encouraged me, so I decided to have this tattoo.”

22-year-old Lin Lin from Beijing’s Capital Normal University had her boyfriend’s last name tattooed to her back.
This art form may have fallen out of favor in the early 1900s, when tattoos were associated with gangsters, but increased exposure to the West is causing their popularity to grow again. Tattoos are actually part of Chinese tradition and local tattoo artists are making their mark on this rediscovered art form.

A tattoo is a mark made by inserting pigment just under the ski. In technical speak, it’s dermal pigmentation.

Almost every culture in the world has developed its own form of tattooing at some point in time. Tattoos were frequently used by the Polynesian people, and certain tribal groups in the Philippines, Borneo, Africa, the Americas, Europe, Japan,Cambodia and China. Despite the taboos that surround the art, tattoos are still popular all over the world.

In Beijing, tattoo studios are emerging like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. Lin Lin got her tattoo from the Mummy Tattoo Studio in Beijing’s Sanlitun bar street.

“There are so many of them, usually some places that are bustling with people, like Xidan.”

Wanghao is the owner of the Punxtattoos Tattoo parlor in Beijing’s Haidian District. He started his own business four years ago.

“I have been learning fine arts since I was young. And I love punk music. Later a foreign friend of mine suggested I join them. So I decided to open this shop.”

The word “tattoo” is commonly believed to have derived from the Samoan or Tahitian word tatau, meaning to mark or strike twice. The first syllable “ta”, meaning “hand”, is repeated twice in reference to the repetitive nature of the action. The final syllable “U” means “color”.

Polynesian tattoo artists pierce the skin with an instrument called the hahau. The repeated syllable “ha” means to “strike or pierce”

A lot of the world’s indigenous people traditionally use tattoos. They’ve been used to mark rites of passage, status or rank, religious and spiritual devotion, bravery, sexual desirability and fertility. They can symbolize a promise of love, or act of a form of punishment. They can act as amulets and talismans, provide protection, or mark their bearers out as outcasts, slaves and convicts.

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