Slowly, tattooing is overcoming an ancient stigma in Beijing.

Although
every Chinese child is taught the legend of Yue Fei, a 12th-century
general whose mother tattooed “serve the country with utmost loyalty”
on his back, tattoos were considered disreputable in China for
centuries. Imperial courts tattooed criminals’ faces before sending
them into exile. By the 1949 revolution, the tattoo was the favored
mark of crime syndicates and subsequently condemned by the Communist
Party. Today, tattoos remain taboo for many of China’s elder
generation, which sneers at the sight of a sun or lotus inked on the
back of a trendy neighbor.