He even claims it did not hurt. 'The whole time I was experiencing this huge adrenaline rush and a 'bajillion' thoughts were zipping through my head,' said the teenager, writing on a body art website about his recent visit to Ricky's Tattoo shop in Wan Chai.

'I was sort of in a shock. Dude, I have a tattoo. All my friends agree it looks very cool.'

Once in vogue with bikers and sailors, tattoos achieved mainstream popularity a decade ago, adorning the skin of celebrities, models and professional athletes.

But the increasing trend of youngsters getting tattoos - including the ritualistic scarring of newly initiated triads - still gets under the skin of some.

Following a recent series of complaints about underage tattooing in Hong Kong, independent lawmaker Audrey Eu Yuet-mee yesterday caught the attention of the government with a question about the number of prosecutions of people violating the law by tattooing people under the age of 18.

Ms Eu said she posed the question after receiving a complaint by a group of Baptist University students, who were conducting research on the issue, saying the problem had been overlooked with few tattoo shops aware of the law.

In a written reply, Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong said: 'We have not maintained statistics on the number of prosecutions under Section 3 of the Tattooing of Young Persons Ordinance'.

Under the ordinance, it is an offence to tattoo anyone under the age of 18, with offenders facing a $1,000 fine for a first offence, and a $5,000 fine and three months' imprisonment for subsequent convictions.

'The lack of statistics showed that the police have never, or only made very few, prosecutions,' Ms Eu said. 'That is why they can't find the figures.'

She urged the government to educate the public while calling for more police patrols of tattoo shops.

But Ricky Lo Yuk-kan, 65, owner of the oldest tattoo shop in Hong Kong, said it would make more sense to lower the age limit to 16 than to prosecute tattooists.

'People are already adults and more mature-minded by the time they are 16,' he said. 'Self-discipline and personal awareness is more important than any policy ... we warn them a tattoo is for life.'

Mr Lo said if he was suspicious of a customer's age he would refuse to serve them.

'But I know of many tattoo parlours in Kowloon who don't take any notice of the law,' he said. 'And even though many people might disagree, the practice of tattooing is a work of art.'