Tattoos have a long - and surprisingly complicated - history in this part of the world. Given Hong Kong's role from the mid-19th century onwards as one of the world's major ports, sailors passing through often picked up a permanent souvenir of their stay in the city. There was a time when almost every sailor sported a tattoo somewhere, usually an anchor or other nautical symbol, or a full-figured 'broad', generously outlined on the chest or limbs.
Wan Chai - for more than a century an off-duty roistering destination for the world's navies and merchant fleets - has some long-established tattoo parlours.
Kowloon - in former times the off-duty preserve of the British Army - also has a few long-established businesses, where mean-looking squaddies (or, more frequently than many choose to remember, their wives) could get a lasting memento of their Hong Kong posting.
But tattoos have always had a more sinister connotation in Chinese and Japanese societies, as identification marks of triad and yakuza members, respectively.
Triads were attracted to tattoos because of their permanence; they symbolised more than anything that a point of no return had been passed. There were several reasons for this. The danger inherent in both getting them and being discovered to have them was obvious.
These days, sterile inks, hygienic needles, disinfectant and antibiotics all help make the tattooing process fairly safe and straightforward. In earlier times, when iron needles had to be dipped in ink and laboriously jabbed into the skin by hand, serious infections were common. Tetanus, in particular, was easily contracted and generally fatal.
