Zhuo Dan Ting (a.k.a. Ting) set up her shop Shanghai Tattoo after moving to the city from Harbin, a town in northeast China, three years ago. “Think Siberia,” she says of her old home in Harbin. “It was a big, industrial town with nothing to do. I wanted to come to Shanghai and check out for myself what everyone was talking about!” So do we, which is why we asked Ting to hip us to the best hangouts and lingo.

BEST PLACE TO EAT BULLFROG
“My favorite thing to do in Shanghai is eat,” laughs Ting. For spicy Sichuan food, try Yu Xin Sichuan (#333, Zhao Shang Ju Square, North Chengdu Rd., near Weihai Rd.). “Order chan zui niu wa. The name translates as ‘hungry mouth bullfrog.’ It’s tender chunks of bullfrog cooked in a spicy soup. I love it!” One tip: “Eating is the Chinese equivalent of going to a bar for Westerners, so don’t expect candles and whispering. Restaurants are loud and smoky!”

BEST WATERING HOLE
“Shanghai has the best nightlife of any city in China,” boasts Ting. For dancing, she swears by The Shelter (5 Yongfu Rd., near Fuxing Xi Rd.). The club, built in a former bomb shelter, spins everything from reggae to trip-hop and hip-hop. For live music, check out Yuyintang (yuyintang.org; 731 Yanan Xi Rd., near Kaixuan Rd.) or Live Bar (chinalivebar.com/shanghai; 721 Kunming Rd., near Tongbei Rd.). “Listen for chants of ‘niu bi,’ pronounced new bee, meaning ‘the cow’s cunt,’” she explains. “Anything cool is niu bi.”

DON’T MISS
Visit the propaganda poster exhibition at Propaganda Poster Art Centre (shanghaipropagandaart.com; Room B0C, 868 Huashan Rd., near Fuxing Rd.), a private collection of 5,000 posters from the Maoist era. “Shanghai head honchos aren’t very comfortable with this period. You’ll have to ask a security guard to bring you, but they are happy to oblige,” says Ting. Afterward, hit the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. “It’s a subway tunnel under the river decorated with fairy lights and an inflatable Santa Claus. Hilarious!”

BEST PLACE TO HIT THE STREETS
Ting loves the French Concession neighborhood, a busy shopping area with restaurants, coffee shops, and bars. “There are really good clothing stores there,” she says. “I have to go through a lot of crap, though, to find stuff I like to wear—not many punks in Shanghai.”

BEST PLACE TO FIND HER
Ting started tattooing in her hometown, where she owned a shop for three years before relocating to Shanghai; she just moved into a bigger, twofloor shop there (shanghaitattoo.com). She runs the shop with her partner, Dylan Byrne, who handles the marketing and translating for those of us who don’t speak Chinese. Well, other than niu bi.

—Jason Buhrmester

If you want to view the original article in German, click here.

Tattoos are still synonomous with criminals and outsiders in China. But it’s youth emancipates itself from this attitude. A visit to Shanghai’s most popular tattoo artist.

Piercings in her face and knee high leather boots, green mohawk hairstyle and tattoos all over her body: Zhou Danting, called Ting, doesn’t look like the typical Chinese girl. In Haerbin, her hometown, everyone knew her.

Even in super modern Shanghai the 26 year old appears like an exotic bird and is almost something of a figure head of the growing alternative scene. “No idea how that happened. It just did,” says Ting, “ but I love it.”

Ting is a tattoo artist who, after three years in Shanghai, has worked hard for her reputation. Together with her Irish partner Dylan, she moved her studio from Hearbin to Shanghai. Not without ignoring the many warnings of her friends.

“Many told her not to take this step,” remembers Dylan, who is kind of manager and “general gopher” at the tattoo studio. But her life partner, who was fed up with his work as an english teacher in haerbin and wanted to get a job again at a design agency in Shanghai, could convince her.

That was the plan at the beginning: “I’ll work in my old business and Ting has a small studio. But it turned out different.”

Tings business literally took of. From the beginning many foreign customers came, all of them left satisfied with their new tattoos from her studio. Ting’s talent in art worked out for her popularity as well as her apperance. Not to talk about the attention the media gave to the extraordinary Chinese girl. Ting has already been in the well known I-D magazine.

And then there was also her involment in the alternative scene of shanghai. Ting ran a Chinese internet forum with 7000 users, the topics went from tattoos to nightlife and music. But the forum was closed – maybe the only time the government felt disturbed by Ting. One user published a photo of a piercing on the website. On the picture there was shown a female nipple: that was the end of the forum.

Nowadays ting wouldn’t have time anyways to look after the site. Her rise to become Shanghai’s most popular tattoo artist is an example of “textbook” viral marketing. “We never really did advertising,” says manager Dylan. Their most important thing was always to take the studio out of the “dirty backstreets”. “Most of Shanghai’s studios are, unfortunately, like you would imagine them. But we always wanted to have a place, where people feel comfortable and liked to hang out. And where you can recognize, that hygiene is the most important.”

Tattoos are in china still a sign of criminals. Even on the streets of modern Shanghai they are still indecent. “For the common Chinese people with tattoos are “people who dont follow the line” and “ people who are a little disturbing”. But slowly the youth emancipates itself from this attitude – something that you can feel in Ting’s studio.

“When we started in Shanghai, 90 % of our customers were foreigners. nowadays foreigners are only about 60 %,” says Dylan. Recently Ting’s mobile phone is ringing more often than his. More and more young Chinese are making the decision to get a tattoo. “they come here, but then they want to have the tattoo at places where noone can see it.” Says Ting.

Also the tattoos are more conservative in style – totally according to their idols, Korean and Hong Kong popstars, as well as the athletes at the olympics, who often have small roses or tribals on their skin. No challenge for the talented artist. But anyways she is happy that more and more Chinese are getting tattoos and making the art more accepted.

On another tendency you can see, how much Chinese see tattoos as a sign of Western coolness. And they want to show their own modernity.

“There is a simple rule: most of the foreigners want Chinese characters and Chinese customers want quotes or words in English”, says Dylan.

Both is no problem in the bilingual studio – sometimes they even have to do corrections, as Dylan remembers. “Once a foreign girl came to our studio and wanted an additional tattoo. On her back there was already a Chinese one. She thought it meant “inner strength”. But Ting had to hide a laugh as she saw it. On the back of the woman was the name of a brand of beer.

Not only because of their language skills Ting and Dylan’s studio will grow. With the growing alternative scene the amount of potential customers grow as well. The couple just moved the studio to a new location. In the middle of a new area near the river, the “Cool Docks”. The studio is now in exclusive neighbourhood of a German top restaurant and many bars. In less than two years the amount of international customers will grow even more. The area of the expo 2010 is not far away.

Local artists thrive as tattoo culture grows in China

As if it comes as some sort of surprise, tattoo art, like many Western trends adopted by the Chinese, has become more than just a passing fad. Tattoos and body piercing have been completely embraced by China's young, 18-35-year-old, urban generation.

"Young people can see tattoos everywhere," comments Harbin-born and Shanghai-based tattoo artist Zhuo Dan Ting of Shanghai Tattoo (www.shanghaitattoo.com). "They know that it's not just gangsters who get them, so they see it as a fashion statement." Another staple of the Shanghai body-art circuit, (name and contact details removed by us, don't look at us like that, you'd do it too!!), has noticed a similar shift in style and loosening of conservative fiber among Chinese youth. "Now in China for about 10 years, tattoos are becoming more popular. Ten years ago they were not popular and viewed as very bad, but our culture is opening up," he says.

There is no exact timeline for the introduction of tattoo art into mainstream Chinese culture (and a large percentage of Chinese society still views tattoos as low-class and barbaric), but the influence has seemingly come from celebrity adoration–young people wishing to emulate their favorite stars. While Ting cites famous personalities like David Beckham and Angelina Jolie as the inspiration for many youths to ink up their sleeves, local photographer, and owner of a serious full-back mural, Kacey Yan, explains, "[Body art has] become common and trendy because Chinese stars in the entertainment industry have tattoos. But," she continues, "I think in China we are still lacking awareness of the standard quality [of hygiene]."

Yan's reservations aside, there has been noticeable growth in the business and caliber of tattoo art in China, in Shanghai in particular, as evidenced by the recent expansion and relocation of Shanghai Tattoo to a larger more prominent location on Zhongshan Nan Lu in The Cool Docks. "We've added a lot of new features to the new shop in terms of design and hygiene," adds Ting who is bringing in a second artist to handle the influx of demand. "We've added a new UV-C light that sterilizes the room, hands free tap, tiled work room and new tattoo chairs."

With these seemingly Western-style standards in place, Ting and (name removed by us), who both prefer to exercise their artistic muscle with unique, detailed pieces over cookie-cutter butterflies and roses, are able to lead Chinese tattoo art into a new, modern era.

My Shanghai

With a green mohawk and a face full of more metal than your average cutlery drawer, and a habit of stabbing people rapidly and rubbing ink into their wounds, tattoo artist Zhuo Dan Ting is a magnet for the cool-hunting Shanghai media. But now she's getting tired of holding up the half of Shanghai's alternative scene that isn't supported by Dan Shapiro's moustache. TALK asked her about media stardom over the whine of her tattoo gun. With each answer she stopped tattooing, prolonging the suffering of a poor client having the outline of a huge dragon tattooed onto his back.

So why do you think you get so much media attention?
Beijing has a number of strange scenes that are thriving. Shanghai just doesn't have them. People don't come here for culture - they come here to make money.

What are the most annoying questions journalists have you asked you?
How much is a tattoo? When people point at the wall and ask, where'd you get that from?

Yeah, we can be pretty unoriginal, but we're not the only ones! What are the lamest tattoos you get asked to do?
I hate it when people ask for the same stuff. Some celebrity gets a tat done, and then everyone wants it. One of the least original tattoos to ask for is a boyfriend or girlfriend's name. Another thing that bugs me is when people get their first tattoo, and they're afraid to get a big one so they ask me to make one so small you can't see it properly.
Tattoos are best when they express their owners' personalities.

What's the best reason you've heard to get a tattoo?
This Australian guy came in with his mum to get a tattoo in honour of his brother, who had just died. He asked me to design a pair of wings to tattoo on his back. I drew it up and the guy siad 'Yes! That's just what I wanted'. Then he asked me to draw his brother's signature. I drew it and they said it looked just like the brother's. They said it was [putting on a Darth Vaderesque bass] 'Destiny!'

Where do you like to kick it in Shanghai?
I like listening to bands at Live Bar. Second Hand Rose are great, and I like older Chinese bands. Most of them are too commercial these days though. P.K.14's lyrics are so obvious - times are changing, people are getting richer, all that sh*t.

So what music are you into?
I like pretty much all heavy metal: Metallica, Pantera - oh, and Carcass are tebie hao.

What about the art scene here - does it help inspire your designs?
I don't like Shanghai artists. My ideas come from everywhere else: books, the internet, and when people come in to get a new tattoo, I'm scoping out their old ones.

You're from Harbin originally. What's most different about living in Shanghai?
The way people think here is really different. They're much more open to things than in Harbin.

Where's Shanghai's most authentic Dong Bei food?
Dong Bei Ren is my favorite. There are a couple of dishes that are the same as in Harbin - like the spare ribs with kidney beans (pai gu dun dou jiao). The serving sizes aren't the same though. In Harbin the dishes are huge.
[With her forearms sheathed in blue plastic, and her hands still in white surgical gloves, Ting pulls out a pen and starts sketching more of the dragon over the customer's shoulder.]

Hey, you have the same pen as me.
It's Destiny!

Bella interviewed Ting to help introduce tattoos to the Shanghai masses.

Check out this great documentary made about Zhuo Danting, our artist, for Current TV. The movie was produced by Ukachi at Bus Boy Films and is now being shown on American TV!

Come here, and let ink meet skin.

With green mohawk, ear piercing, chin piecings, those marvelous tattoos coming out of her sleeves, Ting is definitely the type of person you would never miss on the street. However, in anther place, such as an underground concert where punks gather to party, or in Ting's own tattoo store, no one would say a word about her appearance. Lately, Ting has also shown up in I-D Magazine, an international style bible that has been applauding the global underground for generations. In that magazine, I am sure that her appearance won't cause a riot.

Although the tattoo artist is the main player in any tattoo store, if you want a tattoo you should consider the standards of hygiene, the studio should meet basic requirements in equipment and hygiene. When these conditions are all fulfilled, the tattoo artist's technique and skills, her art background, her understanding of tattoos, even her personality (cool or not) all become the key points of a tattoo artists, and those are the factors which can make the clients like her and trust her.

Ting studied tattoos herself at the beginning. Her first time coming into contact with tattoos was the time when she was getting one herself. Being considered The Best Tattoo Artist in Shanghai so far, Ting has spent 6 years altogether working on it. Since the beginning she was just interested----her drawing background makes her become an excellent tattoo artist. However, tattoos are not just drawing, skin is a kind of canvas which is different from any other types of material, moreover, skin could possibly turn red, dry, and have pimples, freckles, wrinkles…that is the most challenging canvas ever, and more importantly they stay with you for life.

Therefore, a tattoo artist like Ting who has a deep understanding and good art background should surely be called successful. Ting's tattoo store is a business for sure, but she is trying to spread the culture of tattoos as well. It is easy to tell as she answers all questions with great patience. In this world there are always people who never thought to change their bodies, but there are another group of people who have to explore the relationships between their inner selves and the world by changing their looks, and these people will easily become Ting's friend. They will get to know each other in this world, and everyone's skin will have the marks from when skin met ink.

The suggestions from the Editor: Artistic tattoos are Shanghai Tattoo's speciality, if you need some special design just get in touch with Ting.The most creative place: When you are experiencing the process of tattoos which is pain and pleasure in this small cozy room, Ting's boyfriend Dylan who is also the designer of the Shanghai Tattoo website he always plays music, from David Bowie to Metal, they have all kinds of music, which will help a lot to relieve the pain.Comments: " The tattoo Ting designed for me was just what I always wanted and that's indescribable in any words." Relaxing Space: It may not be "Relaxing", but you will have a different mood when you are sitting on that chair getting tattoos by Ting for a few hours (depends on the size of the tattoo).The Best Time: Shanghai Tattoo is only open in the afternoon and night, so you better call to make an appointment before you go.

Text From The Article:

China is both an ancient and an emerging nation becoming westernised faster than you can say skyscraper, while google remains censored.

Culturally, China was once a wallflower on the international stage, but no more. The country is becoming a player for modern art, film and now fashion. Plucking Japan's crown as the Eastern queen of street style, Shanghai's new generation are just as look-at-me as Tokyo's Harajuka Girls. Check out the world's newest street kids.

Zhuo Dan Ting, 24 [sic... she's 26]

Occupation: Tattoo Artist

What are you wearing?
Looking like this gets lots of attention in Shanghai. People have no idea about tattoos here, so I get asked really basic questions like "Can I clean them off?"

What's the best thing about being young in Shanghai?
More and more young people are breaking away from the old conservative ways to live life how they want.

Before I met Ting I thought of, as her name suggests, a traditionally pretty Chinese girl. After one look at her photos on her website however, showed me she is totally different. I couldn't find a bit of traditional Chinese beauty in her. With a green mohawk, three piercings on her chin and lips, all kinds of beautiful tattoos on her neck and arms, she looks like she's fighting the norm with every weapon she has! She certainly didn't look like she was going to give me the usual old interview, it whet my appetite for things to come. Apart from her rebellious looks, most importantly this 25 year old girl from the north of China is already a famous tattoo artist.

Zhuo Danting (Ting) is originally from Harbin. One year ago, Ting and her boyfriend moved to Shanghai and opened a tattoo store called Shanghai Tattoo, her tattoo store is located right behind the famous Xin Tian Di area of Shanghai. Her boyfriend, Dylan Byrne, comes from Ireland. They met in Harbin and quickly fell in love with each other. By the time we got to the store, Ting was not there, Dylan was chatting with some friends in the front yard. He warmly greeted us in fluent Chinese, and told us to wait a bit for Ting. From the very beginning, this interview had a very relaxing atmosphere.

Ting's store is not that big, but with a really cool Logo, it is still very easy to find on the busy Zi Zhong Rd. Just like Ting, you can't help stealing a few looks again and again. The decoration in her store is quite arty; her own tattoo works are hanging all over the walls. It's easy to see all the equipments and tools in her studio are all quite professional, everything there seems in order.

After I met Ting, her appearance is exactly the same as she looks in those photos, the impression she gave me was totally different from what I had imagined before. She was wearing a man's T-shirt, (she laughed and said she stole it from her boyfriend) while we were talking; she also showed me her one off Spiderman sneakers, and she seemed really excited. I thought a girl who looks so extremely different must be really hard to get close to, actually she is the total opposite, her northeastern open personality makes people feel relaxed and I warmed to her instantly.

Although she and her tattoo store have only been in Shanghai for less than a year, they have already won a good reputation. Many people have come for tattoos because they heard of her fame, including artists, white-collar workers, university students, and foreigners from all over the world. In her words, her store is just like the "United Nations". She is delighted that her store has become so international. In the three years she was in Harbin, her tattoo store had a pretty good business, but the customers were not as various as in Shanghai. The customers in Shanghai are more open-minded, which really comforts her. Because that means tattoos have been accepted by more and more people. It has become a new fashion for young people to show their personality and uniqueness.

Of course, many people come here because of her excellent skills. Ting has been studying painting since she was a little kid, which gives her a solid base for her tattoo skills. Meanwhile, the talent she was born with also gives her a lot inspiration for creating tattoos. She tattoos with the principle: cherish every inch of customers' skin as if it was your own. She designs most of the tattoos in her store. She can designs tattoos according to the customers' appearance and personality, each one has to be as unique as the client. When she works, she concentrates 100%; sometimes she can't hear what other people are saying to her. Every single tattoo gives her a very strong sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.

Ting likes Shanghai, because there are so many fun places to go to. When she is free, she likes to go to bars in Xin Tian Di with her boyfriend. She also likes nice food, like Japanese food and Hunan dishes. She loves many bands as well, such as: Sex pistols, the clash, Carcass, Pantera, Slipknot. But what does she love most about Shanghai? That's easy, loads of people want to get tattoos.

The neon-flamed front of Shanghai Tattoo looks odd opposite the shiny steps of Richgate but this relatively new tattoo parlour is gaining a reputation as the best in the city. Impeccable standards of hygiene help the cause, and a medical advisor monitors the studio. As well as tattoos, they also sell a large range of jewelry, and perform both body piercing and body modification (I was too scared to ask!). Artist Ting draws all of the tattoo designs and you can take a look at some of her work at the shop's website.

Web: www.shanghaitattoo.com. Tel: 53066771. Photo: Mick Ryan; www.mickryan.com.

Getting Ink

by Dan, Feb 9th 07

View the original article here.

It was just another day in Harbin. Dylan Byrne, an Irishman there to teach English came off the street into a small shop to have his ear pierced. As he sat he started talking to Zhuo Dan Ting, a strange looking Chinese girl with a green Mohawk. He'd never seen anyone like her before; neither had most other people in Harbin. They hit it off, and now, a few years later, they've moved together to Shanghai to open a new tattoo shop.

Located at 357 Zi Zhong Lu (a five minute walk from the Huang Pi Nan Lu metro stop) the shop is small but cozy. (Check it out on www.shanghaitattoo.com) Ting's drawings - she does all the actual tattooing - line the walls. Dylan, a stocky man with a constant impish grin welcomes the customers. He talks fast and animately; he doesn't just answer questions, he jumps at them. He did web design in Ireland for five years before "career burnout" took him to Harbin. He learned to speak Chinese there and now he does freelance design on the side along with helping Ting run their shop. He's a man who has found happiness in an unlikely place and seems to know how lucky he is.

Ting is a bit younger than Dylan. When he says that she is "not the typical cutesy Chinese girl" it's an understatement. With her hair in a bright green Mohawk (worn down and tied into a ponytail at the back when I met her), and her lower lip pierced with three spikes that jut down nearly to her chin, it's hard not to look at her. There are tattoos peeking out from under her shirt in all directions. On her hands and neck you can see the tips of much larger tattoos, and she tells me about the ones I can see, she tells me about the ones that I can't see and the ones that she hopes to get soon. And yet, she is not imposing in any way. For all of her eye-catching alternativeness, her easy smile and obvious warmth are just as plain.

Before Dylan and Ting left Harbin, she was operating a shop of her own, a small but busy establishment that made her a comfortable living. Alongside her business she ran a website with a message board for Chinese with alternative tastes and appearances. She was a local celebrity who regularly turned heads when she walked down the street.

But, as Dylan describes it, Harbin is a "small country town of nine million people." Despite their success they were bored there. Besides, while it might have been Ting's appearance that made her famous, it was her ability as a tattoo artist that won her a loyal customer base. An ambidextrous calligrapher, Ting has been drawing her entire life. It was only after she dropped out of the Art course at Harbin Normal University (too boring she says) that she took up tattooing. Moving to the more metropolitan Shanghai was a natural step for a young artist with a desire to grow and test her mettle.

The couple saved for a year, and though rent is ten times higher in Shanghai than in Harbin, "so far so good" says Dylan. His theory is that most people think about getting a tattoo at some point in their life, and he and Ting's job is to "be available to people when they finally decide to do it." They've done everything that they can to make that decision as easy as possible. They bought a special reclining chair for their customers, and you won't find a softer sell anywhere in Shanghai. "Okay is not good enough," says Dylan. "We completely realize that this is going to be with you for the rest of your life, and you have to be happy with it first." He and Ting are more than willing to work with the customer on a design until he or she is completely satisfied.

Of course, a tattoo is not for everyone. They are painful to get (though it depends on the person as to how painful it seems) and in some cases quite costly. And unlike in the United States where it seems that everyone wants a tattoo now, in China tattoos are still fairly uncommon and stigmatized; many people have the idea that "tattoos are only for criminals," says Dylan. Ultimately the success of the shop will be related to how much they can overcome that stereotype and attract the more casual customer. Dylan tells a story about a couple that came into the shop to get matching tattoos. As they were having the work done they were whispering to each other about how they would have to cover themselves or lie about the tattoos when they had children. "Oh come on," he thought. "You made the decision to do it, now at least be proud of it."