Studios are mushrooming in a country where body art was once frowned upon as deviant behaviour

Once the mark of criminals or sex workers, for centuries tattoos have been stigmatised in China but the growing influence of celebrity culture is changing all that — particularly for women.

Nowhere is the trend more evident than in Shanghai, China’s most cosmopolitan city and recently dubbed “China’s tattoo mecca” by the country’s state media.

Body art for women has long been frowned upon in socially conservative China, but studios are mushrooming throughout the city of 24 million.

Zhuo Danting, widely considered one of China’s top tattoo artists, has witnessed first-hand how the industry has exploded.

The 35-year-old has 70% of her body tattooed and has been operating her own Shanghai studio for 11 years.

Inspired by celebrities and sports stars, unprecedented numbers of mostly younger Chinese are getting inked, Ms. Zhuo said at her shop, Shanghai Tattoo.

More acceptance

“At the beginning, of course, they just give you a weird look, they’re freaking out,” Ms. Zhuo, who also has multiple piercings and dyed green hair, said of the reaction she gets on the street.

“But now there are a lot of people getting tattoos, it’s getting more and more popular. People see them everywhere so they don’t see it as a big deal,” she added.

In imperial times, convicts were sometimes tattooed as a lifelong reminder of their crimes, and tattoos later were used by Chinese triads to signify gang loyalties.

But Ms. Zhuo said attitudes towards women with tattoos have changed rapidly in the last three years, and the Chinese are increasingly experimenting with their body art. Wang Qi, a web designer, is about to have Ms. Zhuo tattoo her already heavily inked right leg.

Ready to experiment

Her latest inking: the Chinese characters for her grandmother’s name on the inside of her thigh.

“Ten years ago, only 10% of people could accept women doing this. But now at least 60% to 70% of people can,” Ms. Wang said, while adding that quality can vary widely.

The trend has spawned extreme examples, including a couple in northeastern China who covered themselves in patriotic artwork, including a Chinese flag on the man’s face.