文身在中国远古艺术记录里处处存在，随着时光和世界艺术文化的洗礼和改良，成为了如今的文身艺术，而那些古代的雕师和绣匠，如今即将在中国拥有统一的名称——文身师！这个行业在中国发展极快，短短15、6年已经发展成为世界文身第一大国，平均水平高于世界任何一个国家，很多专业学习美术出身的学生们进入这一行业，使中国的文身事业突飞猛进，大师林立。甚至在北京人民大会堂展开了“首届中国美业发展高峰论坛”，即将将这一行业在中国规范化。

Tattoos in China existed since Chinese ancient arts started to get recorded. Those made the foundation of contemporary Chinese tattoo art. Tattoo industry is developing very fast in China nowadays. Just 16 years, it has grown to the largest tattoo industry in the world. A lot of professional art students enter this industry everyday, non-stop, making the Chinese tattoo career to have leaps and bounds. In the Great Hall of the people in Beijing, the first China Forum on the development of the body art industry was launched eight months ago, and it aims to standartize this industry in China.

【图源News source】

如此情景，在中国一部分老百姓眼中仍然是视若无睹，满不了解，尤其是年长的人，更是保持着原有的概念——有文身的都是坏人，做文身的每天和这些人在一起自然也不是好人。

Nevertheless, in the view of ordinary people(especially the elders), tattoos are incomprehensible.

这些都是可以理解的，纹身在中国历史上经过了许多风风雨雨，每个年代的人对每个时期的新鲜事物的接受程度都是不同的。作为纹身师，我们能做的，除了坚持自己的理想并为之坚持，也要尽力冷静的沟通，让不了解纹身文化的人明白艺术没有好坏之分，是时代造就了看法，并不是纹身本事。也希望他们明白，行业本没有好坏，只有从事这行的人有好坏之分。

But what caused them to see tattoos in this way can be totally understandable. The craft of tattooing in Chinese history has been gone through many ups and downs, people from different ages, born in different time periods, all have different acceptance levels. As tattoo artists, what we can do is stick with our ideals and to adhere to them, but also try to let people understand that art can't be judge as just good or bad.

gogo.tattoo/gogo/tattoo/lees_dragon

虽说，中国文身文化早已在新石器时代便已存在于先民社会中。从彩陶文化到三星堆遗址，自东南的吴越到西南的蛮夷，古代文身行为的分布区域在中国其实是很广泛的。那时候的纹身图案的选取和刺图理由上各不相同，考古学家研究显示那时的文身似乎都不具有社会阶级上的贬抑性质，也许就是为了美，为了艺术。

Chinese tattoo culture has already existed in the ancient society in the Neolithic age. From the painted pottery culture to the ruins of Sanxingdui, from the southeast to the southwest of Wu Yue the barbarian, regional distribution of ancient tattoo varieties was very broad. There was a large selection of tattoo graphs. Archaeologists are still studying them, but what they already found proves that tattoos were not able to show the social class of the owner; very possible that it was done in the name of beauty and art.

【图源 Majiayao pottery bottle】
马家窑人头彩陶瓶上，人体各处有纹身 Tattoos are everywhere on these human shape bottles.

然而可惜，西周以来的华夏国家，却将“身体”和“花纹”的联系，摆在区别良贱的脉络里来使用。著名中国古代刑法“五刑”中的“黥墨”之刑，正是将文身作为一种惩罚。（例如：秦始皇建筑长城时会在犯错的人脸上纹上“城旦”作为惩罚；在宋朝，为了防止发配边疆的人逃逸，会在他们的脸上刺上“刺配有周”的字样。）这为大部分中国人曾经根深蒂固的认为有纹身的人是坏人埋下了一道伏笔。

Unfortunately, since the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Chinese nation has put the relation between "body" and "pattern" in the context of making difference between high status people and low people. Tattoo was one of the five forms of punishment.
(for example: First Emperor of Qin (259-210 B.C.) ordered to punish the workers which made mistakes while building the Great Wall. They put permanent labels “城旦”(Cheng Dan) on their faces. In the Song Dynasty, in order to prevent escaping of the people who were transported to distant places, “刺配有周” was inked on their faces.) This laid a foreshadowing for most of the Chinese who once believed that tattoos were for bad people.

【黥墨】

先秦以下时期，南宋抗金名将、民族英雄、爱国诗人、书法家岳飞有一个非常著名的纹身行为岳母刺字，引领了军人刺字明志的潮流。与军队统御相涉的“健儿文身”也是一种纹身行为，有军功者的手臂上会被刺上“赤心报国”。也有人以个人审美或为了看起来更勇壮所以去进行文身行为，但是那时作为刑法的黥刑的纹身行为也依然存在。

In the pre-Qin period, the Southern Song Dynasty, famous national hero, patriotic poet and calligrapher Yue Fei had a very special approach to his tattoo岳母刺字, which later became famous, leading a new trend of intelligent tattoos for soldiers.
At that time "健儿纹身"was a very popular kind of tattoo for military people, "赤心报国(serve the country with heart and soul)" was tattooed on soldiers' arms as a reward.
And there were people who loved tattoos like nowadays us do, tattooing beautiful patterns to decorate themselves.
The punishment for criminals "黥墨" still existed at that time. Criminals were getting ink on their faces, for what they have done.

【图源Picture source】

自百越（秦汉时期对壮、布依、傣、侗、仫佬、水、毛南、黎等 8 个民族的统称）以来，我国南方少数民族便有纹身的风俗。

Every minority in Southern China had their own tattoo customs.

《汉书·地理志》：“文身断发，以避蛟龙之害”。

In the old book《汉书·地理志》:"Shave and tattoo, to avert dragon make disasters."

南方多水，水中猛兽是先民生存的一大威胁，再加上笃信神明，先民以龙为鳞虫之长，水神之首，将神龙形象刻画在自己身上是想将自己化妆为“龙子”，这样可得到龙神庇佑，躲避侵害。

The southern part of China is always wet. The beast in the water was a big threat to the survival of our ancestors. And they believed in the gods. Ancestors thought that dragons were the gods of the beasts and animals living in the water, so they tattooed dragon on themselves to disguise themselves as a "dragon", which should get the dragon blessing, helping to avoid the infringement.

gogo.tattoo/gogo/tattoo/chinese_chest

此外，先民以神龙为图腾，以龙为宗，傣族的纹身就有“别异同，孝祖宗”之用。无纹身者，生前得不到本族认同，不能与他族区分，死后也不能在祖先那里认祖归宗，这是十分残酷的。

In addition, the ancients used the dragon as a totem. In the Dai tattoo culture, they use tattoos to recognize a clan. They think people who have no tattoos, can not have the identity. That they cannot be distinguished from family members, so after they die they can not be together with their ancestors.

《史记·越王勾践世家》:“越王勾践, 其先禹之苗裔……纹身断发, 披草菜而邑焉。”纹身，对南方少数民族而言是“族徽”一般的存在。在影视作品中也把这种纹身文化还原了。
The movie《赛德克·巴莱》 did a good job on reproducing this tattoo culture.

你们知道唐宋时代的中国非常的艺术化，文身行为仍然在刑罚上被应用，儒家也并不推崇纹身，但以彰显个人意识为动机的纹身行为也开始登上历史舞台。文身逐渐成为风尚，甚至出现了专业的“刺青”师傅。

Tang and Song Dynasties of China were very artistic. Tattoo was still used as a tool to punish. Confucianism also does not recommend tattoos. But there are still a lot of artistic souls who want to highlight the behavior of individual consciousness, and this started to be a motivation of having tattoos.
Tattoos as an art began to board on the stage of history. Tattoo gradually became a fashion, which lead to a raise in demand for skillful masters, so being a tattoo master became a profession.

唐人爱诗，也爱刺青；二者融合，就成了把诗刺在身上。

Tang people loved poetry, but they also loved tattoos; Merging two together became a poem tattooed on the body.

有人刺下了王维整本的《辋川集》，有人刺下了白居易、罗隐诗百首，有些富二代还会把自己睡过女人的姓名、年龄、相貌、地址全部刺在身上，称之为“针史”。

Someone tattooed the whole set of article from Wang Wei, Some tattooed Bai Juyi, Luo Yinshi's poem, some rich people even tattoo the name, age, appearance and home address of the women they have slept with, known as "针史(the history of the needle)".

gogo.tattoo/gogo/tattoo/chinese_letters

唐代刺青以蜀人手艺最好，图案多选蟾蜍和蝎子。长安出现了最早的专业刺青师，“札工”。想来唐代札工一定技艺了得，或许还会优于今人。

At that time, people from "蜀(Sichuan/Chengdu area) had the best tattoo skills among all areas. The most often choice of tattoo patterns are toads or scorpions.

gogo.tattoo/gogo/tattoo/leg_frog

宋人有钱又爱玩儿，再加上唐代的铺垫，刺青在宋代已经开始平民化、普及化。以《水浒传》为例，施耐庵给刺青取了个美妙的名字：“花绣”。书中花绣最美的有三位：鲁智深、史进，燕青。

鲁智深外号“花和尚”，《水浒传》第27回：“三拳打死了一个镇关西，逃走上五台山，落发为僧，因他脊梁上有花绣，江湖上都呼他做花和尚鲁智深”。

史进的纹身应该很美，他老爹史太公是这样晒儿子的：“老汉的儿子……请高手匠人，与他刺了这身花绣，肩臂胸膛，总有九条龙，满县人口顺，都叫他做九纹龙史进。”

史进的花绣在“肩臂胸膛”上，鲁智深的在“脊背上”，燕青则是刺了“一身遍体花绣”，这一身花绣有多美呢？让北宋名妓李师师告诉你。

“李师师笑道：‘闻知哥哥好身纹绣，愿求一观如何？’燕青笑道：‘小人贱体，虽有些花绣，怎敢在娘子跟前揎衣裸体？’李师师说道：‘锦体社家子弟，那里去问揎衣裸体！’三回五次，定要讨看。燕青只得脱膊下来，李师师看了，十分大喜，把尖尖玉手，便摸他身上”。

燕青一身花绣犹如“凤凰踏碎玉玲珑，孔雀斜穿花错落”，想必李师师身上的纹身定是栩栩如生。

During Song Dynasty, people mostly were rich and enjoying life more. They loved to get social and hang out.
In the Tang Dynasty, people already leaded the trend of tattoo culture going forward. In the Song Dynasty, tattoos became even more and more popular.
Take 水浒传(The Water Margin; All Men Are Brothers, a popular fiction by Shi Nai'an) as an example, Shi Naian gave tattoos a wonderful name: "花雕(flower embroidery)". A tattoo on the most beautiful prostitute in the book Li Shishi was described as "Phoenix with broken jade, peacock wearing flowers".

可是在宋朝的中国以后，刺青就没什么美妙的历史出现了。元代纹身者众多，但是当时朝廷仍然使用纹身为刑法。

But after Song Dynasty, no more wonderful history about tattoos appear. There were many tattoos in the Yuan Dynasty, but it was still used as the punishment to criminals.

有关商业化文身的记载，自唐至元皆不稍歇，但下至明清，则嘎然而止。这可能与当时的官方禁令有关。

The commercial tattoo records since the Tang until Yuan never stopped, but until the Ming Dynasty, it disappeared. This may be related to the official ban at that time.

到了近现代，特别是改革开放初期，从影视作品中看到了大量的黑社会、恶势力，这些人身上多有文身，社会上一些不良人士也纷纷效仿,所以，人们就将两者“必然”地联系在了一起。

In modern times, especially in the beginning of reform and opening up, from film and television we could see a lot of dark forces people wearing tattoos. Media turned tattoos into a symbol of badness, negativity.

《古惑仔(Young and Danger)》

而现在的中国纹身集合了历史，绘画，人体结构，肌体活动规律，玄学，针法……等多项专业知识，渐渐成为一门多元化的学科。

Chinese tattoos now include history, painting, anatomy, the laws of human skin activity, metaphysics, and acupuncture...

gogo.tattoo/gogo/tattoo/melting_yinyang

它对纹身师的要求也特别高，构图是否美观，针法是否纯熟，纹身的部位是否合理，活动时会有怎样变化，甚至怎样的图案会主宰什么的人运程……都是一个纹身师要事先进行周密考虑的。如果纯粹的从商业性出发，那说明纹身师并没有正确的对待这门艺术。

The requirements to be a tattoo artist are particularly high. We need to know whether the composition is beautiful or not, whether the shadings and linings can be skillfully made... A tattoo artist needs to carefully think through all these details in advance. If it's made purely for commercial interests, it shows that the tattoo artist doesn't treat the art and its future owner properly.

gogo.tattoo/gogo/tattoo/two_fishes

现在在中国越来越多的人开始正视这门艺术，将它看作是艺术、时尚以及个性化的私有符号，用它进行内心的宣泄和个性的张扬。

Nowadays in China, more and more people begin to see tattoos as a symbol of art, fashion and personalized culture. They use it to vent the voice in their hearts and make personality public.

然而中国现在的纹身市场并没有正规化，纹身师并不需要持证上岗，所以如果纹身师的水平高低难以分辨，这是gogo.tattoo诞生的原因之一。

The tattoo market in China is not standartized, artists do not need certificates. The level of tattoo artists skills is hard to measure. Those are also a few of the reasons why gogo.tattoo appeared.

现在中国纹身店的数量惊人，鱼龙混杂，价格也是各家自有各家的标准。有些水平高超的，从业时间久并且做出名声来的师傅（例如出席这次北京人民大会堂的这些纹身师），价格自然不会低，这点大家趋之若鹜。

Nowadays, the number of tattoo shops in China is getting bigger and bigger, and the prices have no standard. Some highly skilled artists who have worked many years and become famous, such as these tattoo artists who attended the meeting in the Great Hall of the people in Beijing, of course, they deserve their time and skills to cost more.

纹身师卖的是时间和手艺，匠人的心，做匠人的事，价格是对艺术的尊重。

也有一些手艺非常不错的新兴纹身师，有可能会像促销商品一样为纹身做促销活动。

还有一部分的纹身店的模式是，用一本传承了好几年的纹身图册，或者是直接在网络上找已经完成了的纹身图片，为进店来的客人依样画葫芦的照搬，刺到皮肤上。因为纹身商业文化在一部分循规蹈矩生活着的中国人的圈子里并未普及，举例子，在我全职在纹身店里工作的那些日子里，遇到过一些并未预约，直接走进店里的客人，他们像询问商品一样询问纹身，在图册或者是百度图片里挑挑选选，在朋友的起哄下选定，不听纹身师的建议，然后直接进行纹身过程，离开。如同去商场逛街买衣服一般简单。

The artists are exchanging their time and their experience, therefore price certainly shows appreciation and respect to the art.
There are also some very skillful new tattoo artists who promote tattoos as if they sell simple items.
Some tattoo shops are merely being copy cats, doing online pictures for whatever price. Since tattoos are not popular in the commercial culture right now in China, many clients still don't have a developed way of thought what tattoo is and why to get it.

http://gogo.tattoo/gogo/tattoo/popular_deer/

这样到底对不对，好不好，大家自己判断。我想说的点是：纹身需要设计，纹身需要定制。纹身恐怕是这个世界上最自由也最自私的东西了。纹身是我们本身违抗中国传统观念，崇尚自由的体现。这是一个完全应该只体现你的意志，只属于你一个人的东西。

Well, let's judge for ourselves. But what I am trying to say here is that tattoos need to be designed and need to be customized. I'm afraid tattoo might be seen as the freest and the most selfish thing in the world, but this is a thing that should only reflect your will and should only belong to you.

gogo.tattoo/gogo/tattoo/interplanetary_freedom

纹身本应是一件奢侈品，是不可复制，不可从你身上夺去的，值得携带一生的宝贵艺术品。在价格鱼龙混搭的中国市场里，贵确实不等于好，便宜也确实不等于不好。太便宜的纹身机会值得三思，太贵的纹身作品也请多加以观察。希望大家都能拥有属于自己的，体现自己的，好的纹身。

Tattoo shall be a luxury, it must not be copied all over. It must not be taken away from you. It is a valuable art and worth to be carried for a lifetime. I hope every tattoo lover can have their own wonderful tattoo, to reflect their own soul.

有机会也请来上海见识当今中国纹身市场盛况，每年大大小小的纹身展层出不穷，很快，继今年五月圣彼得堡Tattoo Weekend之后，今年九月我们将参加上海秋季国际纹身展。届时定在Steemit上分享更多关于纹身行为分析见解。

If you have a chance to come to Shanghai, you will have an opportunity to see the the grand market in China. Annual tattoo exhibition emerges in an endless stream soon after.
This year in May we were in St Petersburg for Tattoo Weekend, it was recorded on gogo.tattoo Offical Steemit. This September we will be participating in the Shanghai Autumn International Tattoo Convention.
We will share what happened on Steemit and we also will share more insights into tattoo behavior analysis.

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我是纹身师gogo - With love