ello peeps. i've posted below my feeble attempt to contribute =D

I need to restart.

Say ello to Ginny (21). Having accompanied her only for a few days, this tattoo is actually her birth date in roman numerals and she wanted it to be a 21st birthday present to herself.
To her, this tattoo signifies a rebirth in life. Quoting ginny, "life has been wrong for too long... i need to restart..." She basically sums up her motivation for getting the tattoo in these mere few words.
Although this motivation is kinda emo, I felt, more importantly, the tattoo symbolises a new beginning for her. Therefore, I wanted to focus on this positive aspect (rather than the negative side) of the motivation which is, a fresh start. Because we were at the national library and had to make do with whatever limited space we had, I decided to shoot it as such, where there's nothing or nobody around. This, hopefully, illustrates her intention to start a new life on a blank slate.

Reflection.

This is Felicia (21). If it's not obvious enough from her skin tone, Felicia loves tanning. No, that's not just it.
Felicia has two tattoos which blend into one. One of them is a "3 Roses" tattoo which, according to her, represents the Holy Trinity and a dove-like tattoo which represents the Holy Spirit.
As a Catholic, Felicia knows very well that it is against her religion to have tattoos. Yet, she finds tattooing a great way to mark significant things or events in her life. She further explained that her tattoos are more for reflection (especially whether she stands by her faith always) rather than expression. Therefore, with the space and time constraints, we took this shot at a mini fountain area at NTU's Arts, Design and Media School.
The reflection on the water surface depicts very well how self-reflection is important to Felicia since things arent always the way they seem to be.

Transformer!

Ok last but not least, Hanbeng who was mentioned earlier by jieying. This guy is one wacky fella. He had his transformer helmet/mask (whatever you call it lah haha) on when we went to find him at his hall. I took this shot because I feel it portrays his narcissism and wackiness very aptly. The dragon and tribal tattoos on his body are but "for fun" possessions. This revokes the common idea that most motivations for getting tattoos must arised from emo, sad, depressed stories. Besides, an ex-waterpolo player, Hanbeng is very proud to flaunt his body and tattoos. In this sense, the tattoos become objects of vanity. Therefore, taking this shot just right at his hall room doorstep further illustrates Hanbeng's strong identity(vain and crazy).

So basically these are a few of what I've taken and I'm still in the midst of searching for more contacts. Hopefully, there will be better photos =D