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roadwalker · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 1750 Location: Ch

I once saw on one of my freshmen English majors a large lower back tattoo when her t-shirt rode up away from her trousers in class. Perhaps it's more common in some regions or in the larger cities for the academic track young ones. I didn't ask about it.

A fellow university ft had tattoo sleeves on both arms and was regularly re-signed for the following year. He mainly kept his tats covered but it's hard to keep them a secret. If you are a serious teacher and do a good job in the classroom, universities are more likely to overlook a non-standard appearance.

keeperofpythons · Joined: 28 Jan 2010 Posts: 152 Location: zhu san jiao

As has already been said for the most part, tattoos in general in China are seen quite negatively. However, this is quite region-specific. For example, I used to live in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province. I have two large tattoos from my shoulders to a few inches above my elbows. They cannot be seen unless I'm wearing a wifebeater or less. I didn't make it a habit of parading them, but a few who did see were curious to know how many people I had raped, murdered, cannibalized, etc.

Now, I live in the Pearl River Delta Region of Guangdong. While tattoos are not quite ubiquitous here, I would say that on any given day I see anywhere from 20-40 tattooed individuals, ranging in age from 16 to 50. More often than not, those individuals are females with a rather small one on the ankle or back of the neck. More often than not, the tattoo is a flower, butterfly, or something similar. Sometimes you will see guys under 35 with rather large ones on their arms or legs and no one really seems to either notice or care.

During a trip to Hong Kong last week, my first I might add, I saw maybe double of what I would regularly see just across the border. I even saw a few clearly elderly individuals with large and intricate tattoos.

In conclusion, China still isn't a place where you would want to just flash it all out 24/7, but depending on where you live - local opinions will range anywhere from you being Charles Manson all the way to not being able to fathom why anyone would care or be interested in it. The latter folks will think you are dumb or strange instead of "bad".

GeminiTiger · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 5:10 am Post subject:

kungfuman · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 6:03 am Post subject:

doogsville · Joined: 17 Nov 2011 Posts: 924 Location: China

I would echo keeperofpythons as far as the Pearl River Delta is concerned. I live in Zhuhai, and there are at least half a dozen tattoo parlours here, one of which is owned by a foreigner who also teaches English. He and I work for the same language mill, who asked us to cover our tattoos with long sleeves because some of the parents didn't like it. We later discovered it wasn't the parents, but one of the Chinese staff in only one of the branches that had a problem.

People glance/stare at my ink a lot, though I only have two tats, one on each forearm, for now. All my students know I have them, but they all know I'm a nice guy and not a gangster. I see men and women here with ink all the time, though the quality of the work is not that great in my opinion.