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

the milestone marker, the cheeky and the self-expressionist

hey peps. sorry for the late post as it can get rather tough to get contacts and then arrange for meetings and stuff. but anyhow, here's some photos that i selected.

Tattoo #1 - milestone marker

i forgot the name of this guy (he's a friend's friend. i'll find it out soon. sorry!).
anyways, he tattooed his last chinese name, 'xu4', on his back.

According to him, he had been toying with the idea of tattooing for quite some time and he decided to do it on his 21st birthday as a marker of him entering adulthood. He chose to tattoo his name as he won't want to have regrets later (as compared to tattooing his girlfriend's name or something like that) as his name will stick with him forever. Besides, as a marker of him entering adulthood, something very personal like his name will make good sense as well.

to bring out this 'story' and to accomodate the fact that the tattoo is on his back, i decided to picture him 'looking into the long distance' to signify his first step into a whole new future. i played with shadows to allow the sun to illuminate on the tattoo by asking him to stand in between a shelter and the outdoors.

Tattoo #2 - cheekiness
this is han beng. he's a really cheeky guy and tattooing to him is purely 'just for fun'. he currently has 2 tattoos. chewy and i went down together for this shoot and she had the shot of his other tattoo (on his hips) while i had the shot of his arms.

apparently, a girl he's interested in wanted to shoot some videos on the process of tattooing and she got him to help. hence, in order to get to know her, he went for it.
this 'story' behind him getting his tattoo is actually a rather interesting one. in a sense, it did debunk the negative connotation that tattoos are involved with the bad guys through the display of the 'fun' and 'practical' side to it.

this shot of him is actually an attempt to show him strumming his guitar to impress. i wanted to use the guitar as a metonym of 'soap opera love' (recall men on their knees, strumming on their guitars and impressing some girl that's staying in some tall buildings). his expression? well, it reflects his personality - the main motivation behind his tattooing.

Tattoo #3- self-expressionistic
the tattoo on this girl was actually designed by herself. the tattoo in the picture is actually her name and it was designed in such a way that whether you are reading from above (face down) or below (waist up), you can still read her name in the exact same design. she always had a passion for body art and tattooing is a perfect way for her to flaunt her talents and designs.

this is, however, not going to be the final shot as it was rather blurred as the lights in her salon were rather dim and i didn't have my tripod with me. i also didn't really like the effect of the photo. hence, i'm arranging for another session with her to get something better.

i did manage to take another shot of another girl. however, they weren't satisfying due to (once again) bad lighting and the lack of tripod. hence, i'm also meeting up with her again to re-shoot everything.
her story is also interesting as she's the vice-principal of a tuition center. hence, she has to cover up her tattoos with plasters every single day due to the nature of her job. however, she still insists on keeping her tattoos as it's her passion. this strong passion also became the driving force behind her determination to keep her tattoos despite having to go through the trouble of plastering them up every day.

pain

In my last post I spoke of using the images that I had to break the stereotype that tattooing is painful. Here is an image that I feel justifies why people have that wrong impression.



I think it is because of images like this in the minds of people that lead to the misconception. Swollen and reddish hands are bound to create a false impression. Which leads to many stereotypes against tattooing.

Regards,
geraldtay

in tattoo shop

I went to the tattoo shop in de Peninsula Plaza. I just wanted to look around in the tattoo shop and by sheer luck, a guy came in to have his tattoo done. He was accompanied by his friends. Both the artist and the guy were very friendly, they were quite excited that I am going to photograph them.

The guy is getting his first tattoo- image of an Ace spade card with flames. He said that the image signifies that he is the biggest in his gang of friends. Biggest in terms of both size and status. He is really big size!!! Reminds me of a school bully.

The tattoo artist told him to relax so that he will not feel the pain. He even assured him that if a girl can take the pain, why not him? A bigger size and more macho. haha.. The guy put a brave front when his friends are around. But when they left for a short break, he told the artist that the tattoo is quite painful.. and when he knew that I am taking pictures, he would make a consicious effort to look 'cool'. so funny...



What is tattoo. This is tattoo. The process.


Keep cool. The photographer is at work.

Doesnt I look good in this tattoo?

Tattoo to express his personalities

- Nat and LJ went with me for this photo shoot -

Everyone wears a mask. At different situations we wear different mask. At home, if you are a daughter you wear a "daughter" mask. In school, if you are the president of the club, you put on a "president" mask. Mask, is simply a cover for our personlities.

My friend in this picture, had his tattoo to express his different personlities- the good vs the bad. This is what we normally called the angel and the devil in us. Why not then just tattoo these images? He viewed that tattoo is a body art that is both permanent and private. Something that would be highly expressive at the same time.

The mirror is to reflect his personalities. When you look from this angel, the image appears like this. But when it is reflected, the image took on another meaning. The half-filled or half-emptied alchol bottles enhanced the meaning of the image.




I took these images in RAW format and after i convert them to jpeg, the colours are gone.. going to look into this.

Troubled with financial and relationship problems, Joan, a widow and mother of four, committed suicide by cutting herself on the wrist. Although her attempt failed, it left a scar on her both mentally and physically. She then decides to get a tattoo to cover the ugly slash, and also to remind herself of the incident.

The Trumpeter

This is my friend kelvin(25) and he has a dragon tattoo on his back.