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News Feature: A Young Man and His Tattoo Saloon
When the whole country was plunged into a crazy celebrating Beijing's successful bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games last month, a young businessman in Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, decided to show his delight in his own way.
He went to the "Indian Tattoo", in downtown Kunming, to ask its owner and artist Gong Yuming to tattoo in his right arm the symbol of Beijing's bid for the Olympics.
"I didn't charge him, both because he is my friend and because I'm also in favor of Beijing's Olympic bid," said Gong, who used to be a tourist guide in the city and became interested in tattoos when he met a French artist named Ikiou, six years ago.
Since then, the young man has followed the French master in studying the art. He didn't pay for the tuition as the French master did not ask for. The master wanted to know how the Chinese young man became lured by the art.
In the past decades tattoos were virtually forbidden in China and even now many Chinese people still look down on the art, regarding it as a decadent thing, Gong said.
Gong, now 32, opened his "Indian Tattoo" last year with official approval from the local industry and commerce and health departments, and so far he has tattooed dozens of local and overseas clients, including young people and some open-minded government officials and professors.
The price of each tattoo depends on its pattern and size. Normally, a 10 cm by 10 cm tattoo costs around 500 yuan.
"I could earn much more if I worked in France, but I wanted to spread the art of tattooing in China," Gong said, hoping that Chinese could view tattooing as a kind of art, rather than something odd.
According to historical records, Ancient Egyptians and the indigenous Canadians began to decorate their bodies with tattoos more than 5,000 years ago. In recent years, many young people in the west have been attracted by the art. A tattoo by a master can cost over 10,000 U.S. dollars.
Chinese have become increasingly tolerant towards the art and tattoo saloons have emerged in some big cities including Beijing, and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, where the country's reform and opening-up policies were first introduced and the first tattoo art association is located.
Gong has not made any profits due to his low price and the expensive equipment and ink he uses, which are imported from France. "Only imported equipment and ink can ensure that clients will not get infected," he noted.
"Tattoos are painful, but it is a great experience when you get tattooed through pain," he said. The scabs come off and the tattoo appear about 10 days after the operation.
There are dozens of photos taken by Gong of his clients' tattoos in his saloon. One of the pictures shows two Chinese characters, which mean "passenger".
"This was done on a French friend," he said, "He heard of my name from Mr. Ikiou before coming to China, and here he asked me to tattoo the characters," as he was then a tourist in China.
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