Tattoos in Hong Kong - level 3
If you you’re squeamish you may want to look away, and if you love your tattoos then play on.
Hong Kong’s first-ever international tattoo convention has opened, in the hope it will put the country on the global tattoo map.
Visitors have the opportunity to meet likeminded inkers in Hong Kong, where tattoos are still controversial – so much so they can stop you from getting a job.
Organiser Gabe Shum, who’s tattooed David Beckham, says Hong Kong has world-class talent on the inking scene.
“I remember the day, the first day when I came back from the States and when I started to run my shop. There were only four very traditional, old school tattoo shops. Four, in Hong Kong. Now, almost, I can say almost 13, 10 to 13 years now, there’s almost more than 100 now. Yeah, I mean you can say every week, every month a new kid wants to be an artist. So it’s blooming pretty fast, pretty fast.”
Compared to other countries, Hong Kong’s tattooing scene is still fairly new with studios hidden away from street level. This three-day event features tattooing, competitions, demonstrations, live music and DJs.
Difficult words: squeamish (easily made sick), convention (large meeting of people with the same interests), likeminded (having similar tastes or opinions), bloom (get better), fairly (quite)