I got a good question on yesterday's post which reminded me that my info about tattoos is quite incomplete. Allow me to answer those questions below.
1. What kind of tattoos do women normally get?
This is a tough one to answer. Without being too stereotypical, they get the normal female tattoos of stars, butterflies, etc. Usually something non offensive and cute. More interesting is their explanation for it. Often the tattoo and what it symbolizes have no connection. For example somebody may say their flower tattoo is there to remind them to always be true to themselves. For the most part it's people who feel lost and want to have some change. Also they want to have some way to view a relationship as a success even though it didn't end in marriage, so they feel getting a tattoo puts some larger meaning to their relationship after a break up, so that they feel it wasn't a total loss.
2. Where do they get the tattoo?
Again stereotypical places that women mostly get them, wrists and ankles. Some get them on their waists just because they are not "allowed" to get a tattoo by their parents so since that area is always covered up, their parents won't find out they have a tattoo. These are not to be confused with "tramp stamps." There are a few ladies who have those kinds of tattoos but that's for completely separate reasons. Or rather a few have them for the intended reason, and with Taiwan being a "me too" culture, other women also got them without really knowing what they are intended to symbolize.
3. Is there any stigma to having a tattoo? Especially if it usually signifies that you went through a break up?
While parents don't necessarily want their kids to have tattoos, there really isn't any great judgement for having a tattoo. For the most part people will even see it and think it's cool. In a relationship, any judgement would come from your bf's/gf's parents and they more care about your job, your parents' background (don't want your parents to be divorced), and your age (the man can't be younger than the woman). A tattoo or past break ups is not an issue. Although if you were divorced before and/or had a kid, that would be an issue for them as well.
4. Is it easy to get a tattoo?
Like for anything else in Taipei, there is a part of the city that is just for many tattoo shops. Interestingly enough it's in the same part of the city that is considered the hang out spot for older teens, as it has many shops and restaurants aimed toward the older teen demographic. I'm assuming it's no coincidence that they thought that was a good spot for a tattoo area.
5. Do Women get a tattoo after every breakup?
Haha. Sometimes the over generalizations I must make to keep my articles short, even make me laugh. Of course not every woman gets a tattoo after a breakup, but yes many of them do. And most women who do have one, if you ask them why they got it, 9 times out of 10 it's because of a break up. However no they usually don't get one after each break up.
That being said tattoos are quite addictive. So usually you will see women with more than one. And the reason they get another one kind of has to do with a break up. Basically girl A has a tattoo and her friend girl B will break up and want a tattoo. So girl A takes her to the shop that did her tattoo, and while she is there, she gets excited and gets a second (or third or fourth) tattoo.
6. When it comes to tattoos Westerners love Chinese writing. Do Taiwanese also have Chinese tattoos? How about English tattoos?
You are right, many westerners are walking around with tattoos of Chinese characters. In fact now that I know the language, these make me laugh because 99% of them are wrong. Yes it could mean the wrong thing, or be written wrong, but the main reason they are incorrect is because in Chinese very rarely does one character mean something by itself. For example the character for "peace." Yes you could look up that character in the dictionary and it would give the definition as "peace" however that character doesn't really mean anything by itself, it only really means "peace" when it is together with a variety of other characters. So it's like if you wanted a tattoo of the western sign of peace (the circle with the vertical line that splits into three lines) but you only got the circle, and not the lines in the middle.
Anyway Taiwanese don't get tattoos with Chinese words on them, or even tattoos with English words. Those few people who do want a foreign language character, usually get an Arabic word, which of course is usually wrong.
We have a special guest for the picture today. A Taiwanese friend has a tattoo which I think is quite incredible. It's the famous quote from one of Hippocrates many books on medical practice. Granted she has it in Latin, and not Greek (Hippocrates wrote it in Greek) or English, or Chinese. You may know it as....
"Art is long, life is brief. Opportunity fleeting, experiment perilous, decision difficult."
I enjoy this quote because most people think it's about art, but he is talking about the practice of being a doctor, and the "art" here means the craft of a profession. Although I will refrain from commenting on why she has this tattoo. Also she has some other tattoos which are the direct result of a breakup, and represent the stereotypical places, images, and explanations, that I mentioned above. But to show my gratitude for her sharing this picture with us, I will not discuss them.
But to give you something to look forward to, if I'm still doing this blog fifty years from now and she has passed away, I will gladly tell you of those tattoos, because they are quite quite quite interesting stories.
