Irresistibly drawn
Calligraphy tattoo artist Joey Pang was initially drawn to the art form by her desire to draw
Joey Pang was travelling in New Zealand when she realised that tattoos could also be an art form.
Back home in Hong Kong, tattoos were mainly associated with gangsters, but the Maori tribal tattoos she saw were something else entirely: serious and elegant, elaborate and sacred.
I didn't start because I thought tattooing was cool. It was purely a medium of drawing for me
Pang was then working as an assistant teacher at a cosmetics school, but longed to draw professionally. "Growing up in Hong Kong, I knew I wanted to do something related to drawing, so I went to design school," she says.
"But I realised design is totally different from drawing. Make-up was a chance for me to play with colour. From there, I got the chance to learn body-painting. Once I got the feel of painting on skin, I thought it was a pity that after all the hard work, you wash it off and it's gone."
Following her transformative trip to New Zealand, Pang decided to try her hand at tattoo art. She went to Europe to train at studios there. "I didn't start because I thought tattooing was cool. It was purely a medium of drawing for me."
At one studio, a Swiss artist told her that Chinese characters were a popular tattoo trend across Europe, although the characters were often incorrect. Pang had been searching for her own style, and the news struck her as felicitous.