Chinese women tattoo away stigmas

Once the mark of criminals or sex workers, for centuries  tattoos  have been stigmatised in China but the growing influence of celebrity culture is changing all that--particularly for women.

Nowhere is the trend more evident than in Shanghai, China's most cosmopolitan city and recently dubbed "China's  tattoo  mecca" by the country's state media.

Body art for women has long been frowned upon in socially conservative China, but studios are mushrooming throughout the city of 24 million.

Zhuo Danting, widely considered one of China's top  tattoo  artists, has witnessed first-hand how the industry has exploded. The 35-year-old has 70 % of her body  tattooed  and has been operating her own Shanghai studio for 11 years.

Inspired by celebrities and sports stars, unprecedented numbers of mostly younger Chinese are getting inked, Zhuo said at her shop, Shanghai  Tattoo.

"At the beginning, of course, they just give you a weird look, they're freaking out," Zhuo, who also has multiple piercings and dyed green hair, said of the reaction she gets on the street.

"But now there are a lot of people getting  tattoos, it's getting more and more popular. People see them everywhere so they don't see it as a big deal," she added.

Zhuo, who got her first  tattoo  at 16 and has inked both her parents, is originally from Harbin, a city in China's far north. There is a growing body art scene there too, she said.

"There is a lot of change. Before, not many people get  tattoos. They thought that people with  tattoos, that person must have been in jail or you are a bad person.         "Now it's a cool thing, to represent yourself as different."  In imperial times, convicts were sometimes  tattooed  as a lifelong reminder of their crimes, and  tattoos  later were used by Chinese triads to signify gang loyalties.

But Zhuo said attitudes towards women with  tattoos  have changed rapidly in the last three years, and the Chinese are increasingly experimenting with their body art.

"Before, when you saw a woman with a  tattoo, it was usually just a small one," she explained, adding: "But now you can see everywhere that they are having full sleeves, or chest, or full back."

Wang Qi, a web designer, is about to have Zhuo  tattoo  her already heavily inked right leg.  The 29-year-old has several body designs, including an hourglass to remind her of the preciousness of time, and a sailboat and lighthouse inspired by her love of the sea, as well as  tattoos of a snake's head and a crocodile's eye.

Her latest inking: the Chinese characters for her grandmother's name on the inside of her thigh.  "Ten years ago, only 10% of people could accept women doing this. But now at least 60 to 70% of people can," Wang said, while adding that quality can vary widely.

AFP