Who's the Hong Kong Tattoo Artist Who Inked David Beckham and Lebron James?

Malaysian-born tattoo artist Gabe Shum opened Freedom Tattoo parlor in 2000, becoming part of the crew who drove Hong Kong tattoo culture away from its connections to triad life. He is particularly known for his freehand work, and has done work for David Beckham and Lebron James. Shum set up the International Hong Kong Tattoo Convention in 2013, which is now in its third year. He tells Evelyn Lok about inking Hong Kong and changing people’s minds about the art form.

I was first exposed to tattoos at 13 or 14. I couldn’t sit still as a kid. I’d be happiest if you told me to go motorcycling or horse riding. The only thing that could make me sit still was tattooing.

I would spend a lot of time in tattoo parlors just watching. Hong Kong tattoo legend Jimmy Ho gave me my first one for free because I kept bringing in customers. It’s a small dragon on my thigh.

When I came back to Hong Kong in 1998 to open my first place [Acedragon Tattoo], there were only four tattoo parlors in Hong Kong. Mine was the fifth. I’m part of the third generation of tattoo artists here.

Back then, the scene was still very “triad-y.” The designs were simple and it was still mostly triad members who got tattoos, so there was that association.

It was because the local artists learned from their sifus, opened their own places, but they’d never been abroad.

We were already thinking of organizing a convention back then, but we were so few, and the styles were so old school.