“I did a navel piercing. Why? Because I think it’s nice, that’s all !”, Ngoc laughs simply. Ngoc is an energetic and outspoken young 25 year-old girl, working as a manager in an American fast food restaurant chain. She studied management in France three years and this is where she got the idea of having a piercing. “When I was living in Paris, I saw so many students wearing piercing, almost everywhere! On the eyebrow, nose, lips, and even the tongue! That was quite a shock at the beginning but I found it really cool. I started by having a piercing on the eyebrow. I kept it for a year or so. Then my mom came to visit me and she said that it is ok to have a piercing but I should be aware of the prejudice it may cause. People are indeed misjudging pierced people. They think they are bad people”. Back to Vietnam, Ngoc took her mom’s advice into account – and yes, her mom is quite open-minded! – and she removed her eyebrow piercing and then opted for a more discreet piercing on the navel. “When I came back to Vietnam, I wanted to have another piercing. I asked my boyfriend if he was ok and he said that he was fine with the idea. But at that time, it was not easy to find someone who could do it. So I went to the Rock shop on 53 Vo Thi Sau street because I knew that they were selling piercing jewelry. I was indicated a beauty saloon and I went there straight away. The guy was quite professional. He wanted to talk with me before he performed the piercing. He asked me few questions to test my motivation and 20 minutes later, it was done. It cost me vnd 500,000 at that time. I was a little bit afraid of the pain and I also get skin allergy easily. After the piercing was done, I indeed had a beginning of skin rash. I came back to see him. He gave me some antiseptic medicine and it was fine.” She still keep her piercing today but she rarely changes her jewelry, a straight bar with two screw-on balls in white gold. “I don’t need to. Anyway, I don’t pay too much attention to it now as I have become used to it”, she comments.
Piercing and tattoos got professional few years ago. It is not authorised nor forbidden by local authorities as a professional activity but shop owners prefer to stay low profile and advertise only among close friends. “We don’t want and we don’t need to draw attention on our job”, tattoo and piercing shop 22 year-old owner Cuong Em says. Long haired and tattooed on both arms, Cuong Em is looking at the latest tattoo models on the internet. “We don’t need publicity”, he continues. “I got a lot of friends and that is enough for my business. Anyway, not everyone is interested in having a tattoo or a body piercing!”. Three years ago, Cuong Em opened his shop Tattoo Guys on 166 De Tham street, in district 1. “Our customers are mainly from the music and artistic scene”, he explains. “It started something like ten years ago within this community and it still represents the largest part of our clientele today”, he says. As Cuong Em is also the singer of heavy metal band Titanium (recently awarded at the Tiger Translate show), he is quite connected with the music scene. “My band and I have been around enough to know a lot of artists. Also, my elder brother did his first tattoos ten years ago. At that time, needles were used to drive pigments into the skin. It was done by hand so to speak. He taught me everything about tattoo and piercing techniques”, Cuong Em says looking at old photos on his laptop. “Now everything is modern. We use machines using alternating electromagnetic coils to move the needle. We have different types of colors whereas only black color was available in the past. I remember my first trip to Singapore to buy these new materials some years ago. At the shop, Joy, the owner, asked what was my job. I told him I was a tattoo artist. He laughed so hard, I felt so embarrassed. He could not believe that in Vietnam, there were professional and competent tattoo artist. When I came back 2 months later, I showed him the photos of the tattoos I performed. He apologised for his laughing earlier and we are now good friends!”
Piercing and tattoos got professional few years ago. It is not authorised nor forbidden by local authorities as a professional activity but shop owners prefer to stay low profile and advertise only among close friends. “We don’t want and we don’t need to draw attention on our job”, tattoo and piercing shop 22 year-old owner Cuong Em says. Long haired and tattooed on both arms, Cuong Em is looking at the latest tattoo models on the internet. “We don’t need publicity”, he continues. “I got a lot of friends and that is enough for my business. Anyway, not everyone is interested in having a tattoo or a body piercing!”. Three years ago, Cuong Em opened his shop Tattoo Guys on 166 De Tham street, in district 1. “Our customers are mainly from the music and artistic scene”, he explains. “It started something like ten years ago within this community and it still represents the largest part of our clientele today”, he says. As Cuong Em is also the singer of heavy metal band Titanium (recently awarded at the Tiger Translate show), he is quite connected with the music scene. “My band and I have been around enough to know a lot of artists. Also, my elder brother did his first tattoos ten years ago. At that time, needles were used to drive pigments into the skin. It was done by hand so to speak. He taught me everything about tattoo and piercing techniques”, Cuong Em says looking at old photos on his laptop. “Now everything is modern. We use machines using alternating electromagnetic coils to move the needle. We have different types of colors whereas only black color was available in the past. I remember my first trip to Singapore to buy these new materials some years ago. At the shop, Joy, the owner, asked what was my job. I told him I was a tattoo artist. He laughed so hard, I felt so embarrassed. He could not believe that in Vietnam, there were professional and competent tattoo artist. When I came back 2 months later, I showed him the photos of the tattoos I performed. He apologised for his laughing earlier and we are now good friends!”
As a sign of changing times, Cuong Em receives more and more customers coming from a different background. “I have more and more youngsters coming”, he says. “I have fixed the minimum age to get a tattoo or a piercing at 18 year-old though. But most of all, more and more businessmen want a tattoo. It is not just for decoration. In the East, people traditionally believe a tattoo will give power to the beholder, prosperity in business, or good health. That is the reason why they want a tattoo. Therefore, Vietnamese people look into traditional mythological animals like dragon, phoenix, carp or symbols which bring them harmony with nature, with their environment, with others. Whereas in the West, people would tattoo personal souvenirs, faces or names. I just finished a huge tattoo for a businessman, representing a dragon covering his whole back and upper legs. It is believed that the dragon brings power and prosperity”, Cuong Em explains showing the photos of his artwork. Having said that, Cuong Em holds several tattoos on each arm, each of them having a personal meaning; one of them represents the symbol of Sepultura (his favorite heavy metal band) and the other one is a personal creation: “I designed the tattoo I hold on my left forearm. The two eyes represent the states of awareness in life I think I went through. You know, when I was young, I wanted to be an architect or a painter. But I did not have the means to achieve it. This is represented by the first eye. The second eye is for the new look I have on life, with my tattoo job. I feel fulfilled because I really consider it as an art form. I hope more and more people will look at tattoo and piercing as an art form, a body art so to speak”, Cuong Em concludes.
For him, there is no difference between girls and boys in tattoos or piercing, except for tongue piercing: “unlike in the West, more boys get tongue piercing in Vietnam”, he explains. Binh, the Rock shop manager got his tongue pierced few months ago. “It hurts a little bit at the beginning and it took around one month to heal”, he says. “I like it, it’s cool. More importantly, I think my tattoos and piercing are for myself. It is not for show off. I don’t need people to see them. I know some teenagers do it to rebel against parental authority and the society as a whole. Because families are usually strict here in Vietnam and because the society is quite conservative, they would get a piercing as a method of self expression and of identity building. So they would not tell their parents and keep it as a secret, always hiding it to their family, almost becoming like a game. Or in the other hand, other people would show their tattoo off to show how cool and different they are”, Binh explains. As for Ngoc, such behaviour could give a bad image of piercing and tattoo. “The problem is not so much about tattoo or piercing in itself” she says. “The problem is in the attitude. I once saw a bleached blonde Vietnamese girl having a large tattoo on her lower back. The tattoo was nice to tell you the truth. But as she was sitting on a motorbike with a low waist jeans… well, you could see more than her tattoo if you get my meaning! That is unacceptable for me. It is vulgar and it ruins the beauty of the thing. Tattoo or piercing is a personal thing as for me. Or if you wear it on the outside, it should be like jewelry or make up, it is supposed to make you look nice!” (photo by Cuong Em)
