Why China's youth is getting the needle

Wang Mingdi has a similar feeling. "I know it crosses the line, but having a tattoo brings me the joy of secretly breaking the rules," he said.

The 27-year-old designer at an underwear company had his first tattoo, a scantily dressed woman, on his right calf when he was in college. He said he has fantasized about the worlds depicted in gangster movies and rock music since childhood, but he's just an ordinary white-collar worker.

To all intents and purposes he's a "normal" member of society. Every day he undertakes the 60-minute commute to his office in a glass-walled, high-rise building in one of Beijing's busiest districts. He punches the clock, pays his taxes, visits his parents on important holidays, has been in a relationship for seven years, and is preparing to get married.

"But deep inside of me, I want to be different, I want to have something other people don't have," he said. "In the past, being different was a sin, but now, as China develops, being different is cool."

Last year, he had new tattoos on his left arm that show a burning church, a blonde woman, and demons - all inspired by tattoos flaunted by Western rock stars - and also a small pencil sharper on his wrist because he uses one all the time in his design work. He hasn't told his parents, both high school teachers, about his tattoos. "I don't think they would understand," he said.

Cao Chen, a tattooist in Beijing, said society's continuing disapproval of tattoos hasn't stopped people from "getting inked". Cao's parlor, about 2 kilometers south of the CBD area of Guomao, is visited by more than 300 customers every year, mostly white collar workers aged 25 to 35.

Cao has pinned examples of his work on the wall of his parlor, including a big-eyed deer, several bleeding skulls, and the Monkey King, one of the great figures of Chinese literature and a favorite among his male customers.

As the main character in the classic Journey to the West, the Monkey King used his immense strength and intellect to rebel against Heaven, and has long been seen as the Chinese version of a superhero.

"Very few people have tattoos just to be cool - instead, they want to immortalize memories, their loved ones, and their own identities," Cao said. "We help them to design a unique image that will help to define them."

Contact the writer at pengyining@chinadaily.com.cn

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