When the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” was coined I think they had people like Jin in mind. At first glance she appears a demure, petite and delicate Asian lady. Within the first 5 minutes in her company you discover a lively, enthusiastic woman, with a ready laugh and a huge passion for tattooing. After a little while longer, you discover that Jin’s tattooing passion was born from tattooing Yakuza members in Korea.
Jin was always an artistic child and from an early age decided that art was the course her life would take. Her mother tried to dissuade her with the sage advice that life as an artist was a poor one and that she would never make enough money to live. She encouraged Jin to become a teacher, which would give her a steady career and make her very eligible in the marriage stakes. But even at an early age Jin was feisty and told her in no uncertain terms that she would be an artist and that she would do what she wanted to do.
So in 2004 Jin graduated from Chung-Ang University, with a degree in fine art. Like most artists she had to work and worked in a variety of roles such as painting model dinosaurs, illustrating books, interior design and even some teaching…of Art, naturally. These jobs took her travelling around Eastern Asia, China and Vietnam.
Jin became involved in tattooing, almost by accident. Tattooing in Korea is illegal, except for those done by doctors. If a tattooist were caught they would receive a fine for the first offence, if they are caught a second time it may well result in a prison sentence. So tattooing is not advertised, nor do people show their tattoos openly. Tattoos are for the under classes, criminals and the Yakuza in Korea. Jin had not even seen one until her gap year, which she spent in Australia. So I asked her how she accidentally became a tattooist; “ Well, my friend told me she had been drawing on some men’s backs and of course I asked her what she had been doing. She explained it was for a tattooist and she had been doing it because the tattoo guy could not draw. She had done it a few times for him; she drew freehand on the customer’s backs and the tattooist then tattooed over it. But she hated the job because it was considered common and held criminal connotations. Many of the customers were Yakuza, so she was mixing with criminals all day but it was good money. So I told her “Really that is quite interesting, can you introduce me?” She tried to contact the tattooist but she couldn’t get through to him until about 6 months later. He was then in jail for drugs offences, so I waited for him to be released from jail and finally I met him. He liked my drawings so we started work. He had learned to tattoo in jail using a battery shaver with whatever ink he could find. When he came out of prison he still used a shaver to tattoo and a single sewing needle as a liner. The shader was seven needles rounded. That was all the equipment we had.
We were very portable and moved from place to place, tattooing all over Korea. I started out doing the freehand drawing for a few months but after that I started doing the tattooing. The first tattoo I did was this huge dragon and the customer was screaming. I didn’t know how deep to tattoo and I made the skin peel off a little bit. The customer then complained that it hurt; I said, “Of course a tattoo hurts, just stay still!” A few weeks later the man showed me his tattoo and a lot of the ink had come out, so I said “Don’t worry we can put it in again, don’t you worry. I won’t charge you any money”. As I was dealing with the Yakuza I had to make sure that I showed no weakness and that I stood up for myself. I was slowly building a good reputation among the customers.
It was all men that had these big tattoos. Sometimes men brought girlfriends or wives in. But my business partner did not want to charge for tattooing women. When compared to a big piece they had small butterfly things, so we didn’t charge. Strangely enough most of my customers here in the UK have been men as well, I would love to have more women customers.
I came to England because all the time I was tattooing an arm or a back with a tattoo of cherry blossom, a koi, and a dragon. I was growing sick of doing the same thing over and over again. My business partner did not want to use more creative designs and positioning because he was unable to do it. He just wanted the classic designs and to follow his only style. What he did was use the same dragon design for all the people. Therefore what was happening was that when we visited an area 100 people could end up all with the same dragon design, in the same position: the same everything. I wanted to bring a bit of individuality to each one. Not only was I growing tired of the repetitiveness but of course it is underground work and I wanted to develop my tattooing skills and style. So I came to England.”
Jin arrived in the UK, spent a year learning English and acclimatising herself to the weather and the British culture. Initially she tattooed at a small studio and found it too quiet. Before leaving Korea she had built a reputation and was constantly busy, now here in the UK she had time on her hands. But she put the time to good use and would sit in the shop, drawing. After moving round a couple of studios Jin now works in Middleton Tattoo Studio, Middleton, Manchester, alongside Louis Molloy.
Jin acknowledges that learning to use proper tattoo machines and finding what results she can achieve with the different inks available to her has been a steep learning curve. All her work in Korea had been free hand so she has also been introduced to carbon paper. She uses the internet and the conventions she attends to look at the work being produced by other tattoo artists around the world and to constantly look at the work that she produces, looking for ways to improve. Jin has been drawing all her life and readily confesses that tattooing needs a different set of skills. Every customer is different, they have different types of skin and that skin differs dependant on position on the body. You also have to learn to deal with people’s pain, as well as the restrictions of time and money. She feels that as yet she cannot 100% convert her drawing style to a tattoo, so whenever she finishes a tattoo she looks for areas where she thinks she could improve. Even after 26 years Louis too is always looking to develop his skills, so for Jin this is the best environment for her to build and develop her skills, alongside someone else that takes their career as seriously.
Given Jin’s background I asked if she had ever suffered any adverse effects from being a woman tattooist. She said she was pleased to say that she had not, except once in Korea. A lower member of the Yakuza came to her for a tattoo and did not show her any respect, treating her like a servant. She made sure that his tattoo hurt and she made him sit for 3 hours without a break! When he returned for shading he was far more respectful and additionally, Jin was never shown disrespect again.
