Tattoos: Taboos and being a tattoo artist in Malaysia
- Ivan Mark D' Cruz
- Aug 13, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 13, 2019
See Chun You 1001748245
Ivan Mark D Cruz 1001850108
On the 4th of August, we as in me Ivan Mark D’ Cruz and my pair mate See Chun You had the opportunity of interviewing a tattoo artist by the name of Jennifer Pereira who works at Iron Bunny which is located in Sungai Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur. Jennifer Pereira, aged 23 has been a tattoo artist for about a year now, and this article depicts some of the hardships and tribulations faced by her which can be backed up with similar experiences faced by those with tattoos and those who are tattoo artist themselves.
But before diving in into the topic, you must be wondering “what are the types of tattoo machines that she uses to tattoo?” Well she uses two kinds of machines. She uses both the rotary and coil tattoo machine. Usually, tattoo artist usually use either the rotary machine or the coil. However she on the other hand, uses the rotary to shade most of the time and she uses the coil machine to draw lines and make line shadings. According to Barber DTS .com, a tattoo gun supplier, they claim that rotary tattoo machines are much more versatile compared to coil machines as it could be either used for shading or for drawing the outline of the tattoo. The movement of the rotary tattoo machine is fluid in needle motion when compared to the coil machine which is jagged in its needle movement.
Upon interviewing her she said that some of the things that she has faced are discrimination from society as she is covered in tattoos especially being here in Asia. She claims that when she takes the public transportation back home she gets dirty looks from strangers as they think that she is a deviant and they too believe that her tattoos are gang associated when in reality she just has tattoos for fun and she enjoys art. According to an article released by The Star Online titled, “Tattoos on job seekers needle Malaysian Bosses” by Hemananthani Sivanandam claims that those with tattoos who are seeking for a job could face the possibility of unemployment as getting inked could face the chances of unemployment upon a survey found.
The study by YouGov Omnibus had revealed that as many as 7% of the population in Malaysia do have a tattoo, three in five (58%) said that they are less likely to hire someone with a tattoo although they possess proper certifications. The number of negative remarks can reviews comes from people who are over the age of 55 when compared to those who are in the range of 25 to 35 years of age who are more accepting of people with tattoos. This also proves her statement of people who are younger tend to be more open minded and accepting when compared to those who are “older generation” which refers to those in their late 50/60’s.
Another stigma around tattoos is that being an Asian and growing up in Asia, she stated that being an Asian girl with tattoos, she claims that her family thinks that it brought shame or dishonor to the family because they view tattoos as something that is negative and wrong as they associated people with tattoos to be troublesome and mean in demeanor. However her family has grown to accept and love her regardless of the amount of tattoos on her body.
As a tattoo artist herself she had mentioned that people often look down at her because it is not seen as a real job and it is not accepted as something “professional”. Upon venturing into tattoo artistry, her family was against it at first making comments like “oh this is not going to provide you with sufficient money” or “this would bring you harm” however on the other hand she is making a sufficient amount of money and is doing quite well and she enjoys the job that she does. According to an article released by Chron.com on tattoo artists, tattoo artist’s pay differs on how many clients they have and sometimes the salary is paid based on the number of sales are made in a day. However there are some cases where artists are paid based on the projects that they carry out. Only a handful of studios pay tattoo artist an hourly rate while most studios pay their artist in regards to the number of sales of the studio as a total.
More information can be found in the video below for further references and information.
List of references
- https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/05/30/tattoos-on-job-seekers-needle-msian-bosses (The Star Online)
- https://work.chron.com/drawbacks-risks-being-tattoo-artist-22115.html (Chron.com on tattoo artist)
- https://www.barberdts.com/se/blog/2017/03/20/tattoo-machines-rotary-vs-coil/ (barberdts.com, Tattoo Machines: Rotary vs. Coil)
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