Chinese craze for English tattoos
- Source: Global Times
- [15:35 April 20 2009]
- Comments
Tattoos of Chinese characters have long been a fad in the West as a way of denoting the mystique of their bearers.
But in a reversal of the trend, Chinese ink parlours are reporting a sudden craze among their clients for tattoos in English.
Zhang Aiping, a tattooist at Tattoo 108 in Shanghai, said: "Around 30 per cent to 40 per cent of our customers are choosing tattoos in English letters now. This has happened really suddenly, since the beginning of this year. I just did one a few days ago for a footballer at Shanghai Shenhua club. It said: 'I miss u forever'."
Tattoos have existed in China for thousands of years, but have been largely taboo since 1949.
Only in the last five years have scores of tattoo parlours sprung up, operating in a grey zone of legality.
The motivation for choosing English letters is simple – any foreign language is mysterious and exotic.
At Tattoo 007, Zhu Jian has inked a variety of English phrases, some more grammatically correct than others, including "Mr Lonely", "Best love in my life" and "I belong to God and it bless me".
He founded his parlour in 2002, in a residential building in a central Shanghai suburb.
"We get 20 to 30 customers a month, and import our paint and needles from Europe," said Mr Zhu, who charges an average of 1000 yuan (£100) per tattoo, the equivalent of a factory worker's monthly salary.
"We get mostly college students, but we have also had doctors, professors and bankers. Tattoos of letters have become very popular since last year, with around three out of ten people going for them. They are simple and graceful," he said. "Quite a few just copy the tattoo of their favourite stars, like Beckham or Angelina Jolie."
(Telegraph.co.uk)
Notes:
Tattoo: I 动词 1 刺花（纹） 于，文（身）2 刺出（图案）， 文出
II 名词（复数为tattoos）文身，文出的图案；刺花，刺青
Taboo: I 名词（复数为taboos） 1 忌讳，禁忌；应忌讳的事物 2 戒条，戒律
II 动词 1把……视为禁忌，忌讳 2 禁止，把……排斥在外
III 形容词 被禁止的，忌讳的
For Chinese translation see P6 in today's Global Times Chinese Edition.