For young feminists in the country of billions of people, tattoos have become a way for them to show their bravery and assert their sovereignty over their bodies.
In China, tattoos have long been associated with skull sweatshirt stereotypes of thugs and bad girls. But today, that is changing. Some tattoo artists help women express themselves through ink strokes.
The stories are told through
The tattoo design ideas that Lingmeng received.The project received more than 100 entries. Chinese women share thoughts on empowerment, close relationships, female identity, reproductive issues and gender-based violence. Within a year, more than 30 participants had tattoos based on their ideas.
For Lingmeng, the stories are not only an inspiration for her tattoo designs, but also another way to promote women's voices and raise gender awareness in China. '
Lingmeng's artwork was displayed at a series of art shows in Chengdu last year. Her tattoo parlor also presents its own small exhibition.
“We wanted to provide a space where women could feel comfortable, safe, relaxed and undisturbed during the tattooing process. At the same time, we also want to break stereotypes about tattoo parlors,” she said.
Eliminate stigma
Traditionally in China
tattooing is considered controversial. Filial piety in Confucianism holds that "children's skin belongs to their parents" and tattoos are despised by older generations.
Women with tattoos are often gendered or stigmatized as bad girls. There is a growing crackdown on tattoo culture, including requiring taxi drivers with tattoos in Gansu province to remove ink from their bodies and banning tattoos in football.
On the other hand, tattoos are increasingly popular among the younger generation, who embrace them as a new art form and remove the stigma. In particular, women are using tattoos as a way to express their opinions.
Xiao Meili, a famous Chinese feminist activist, asked Lingmeng to design a tattoo for her in May 2021, after experiencing cyber attacks.
Xiao describes the tattoo as a ray of light: "I hope I live in an era where I don't go against the rules out of fear or besiege. There are so many things you can give up, give in or compromise, but you should never be part of the darkness. I wanted to use this tattoo to remind myself to always look towards the light.”
Pan Jing, 28, who works at a technology funny hawaiian shirts company in Beijing, gets a uterus tattoo on the inside of her arm as her mother prepares to have it removed because of an ovarian cyst.
“First of all, even if I don't want to have children, I think the uterus is a particularly important organ for women. Second, for me, my mother's womb is the first little house in my life. I hope to leave her memories on my own body, to always remember that I grew up there," she said.
Pan added that her boyfriend
was with her when she got the tattoo, but he didn't seem to understand why she did so.
“I think men still don't fully understand women's emotional needs. The men around me, including my boyfriend, always think that women with weird tattoos are bad, but my girlfriends rarely speak out."
Li Zhuoying (25 years old), a recent graduate in Shanghai, chose to get a human-machine hybrid tattoo to represent her feminist identity. While writing her college thesis, she read Simians, Cyborgs and Women by Donna Haraway and was inspired by feminist interpretations.
“If women want the world to be completely gender-equal, it has to be a place where they no longer have the burden of having children. The way forward for women is to become mechanized creatures. This became the inspiration for my tattoo,” she said.
Raise awareness
Other tattoos designed by Lingmeng as part of the first project include a flower-shaped clitoris, which is described as "an organ that allows women to control their own sexual pleasure and liberate themselves from self-consciousness. traditional notions that their role in sex is only to serve men.”
For young feminists in the country of billions of people, tattoos have become a way for them to show their bravery and assert their sovereignty over their bodies.
In China, tattoos have long been associated with american baseball jersey stereotypes of thugs and bad girls. But today, that is changing. Some tattoo artists help women express themselves through ink strokes.
When he started tattooing in 2018, Lingmeng, a Millennial (born 1981-1996) from the city of Chongqing, found the culture male-dominated.
Determined to change that
a year later, she opened a tattoo parlor in the city of Chengdu after leaving her job in advertising, according to The China Project.
Lingmeng's first gender-themed project kicked off in April 2020. She collects stories from women about their growth and experiences. They are envisioned as tattoos that participants can freely paint.
The stories are told through
The project received more than 100 entries. Chinese women share thoughts on empowerment, close relationships, female identity, reproductive issues and gender-based violence. Within a year, more than 30 participants had tattoos based on their ideas.
For Lingmeng, the stories are not only an inspiration for her tattoo designs, but also another way to promote women's voices and raise gender awareness in China.
Lingmeng's artwork was displayed at a series of art shows in Chengdu last year. Her tattoo parlor also presents its own small exhibition.
“We wanted to provide a space where women could feel comfortable, safe, relaxed and undisturbed during the tattooing process. At the same time, we also want to break stereotypes about tattoo parlors,” she said.
Eliminate stigma
Traditionally in China
tattooing is considered controversial. Filial piety in Confucianism holds that "children's skin belongs to their parents" and tattoos are despised by older generations.
Women with tattoos are often till valhalla tattoo gendered or stigmatized as bad girls. There is a growing crackdown on tattoo culture, including requiring taxi drivers with tattoos in Gansu province to remove ink from their bodies and banning tattoos in football.
On the other hand, tattoos are increasingly popular among the younger generation, who embrace them as a new art form and remove the stigma. In particular, women are using tattoos as a way to voice their opinions.
Xiao Meili, a famous Chinese feminist activist, asked Lingmeng to design a tattoo for her in May 2021, after experiencing cyber attacks.
Xiao describes the tattoo as a ray of light: "I hope I live in an era where I don't go against the rules out of fear or besiege. There are so many things you can give up, give in or compromise, but you should never be part of the darkness. I wanted to use this tattoo to remind myself to always look towards the light.”
Several pieces of Viking gold jewelry have been discovered at a farm in Denmark that are 1,300 years old.
On a farm on the island of Zealand, Denmark, archaeologists and volunteers used metal detectors to search for jewelry and found Viking gold objects. According to scientists, the exquisite jewelry partly proves that the Vikings had artistic talent in handicrafts.
Among the finds
was a 73mm piece of jewelry in the shape of halloween sweatshirts an animal head with round eyes and ears. "The piece of jewelry is made of copper alloy, it is believed to be part of the necklace," said archaeologist Ole Thirup Kastholm of the Roskilde Museum.
He added: "There is something unusual about the image of animals in Viking art, which represents the act of 'Shaman', that is, the act of mediating between reality and unreality." The scientist can't say for sure who wore it, but he thinks it's most likely a Viking-era elite.
Another mysterious artifact
found was a Christian cross. It seems to have been brought from Europe between 500 and 750 AD. According to Mr. Kastholm, the jewelry was round, inlaid with gold around a red cross.
"How the Christian artifacts arrived at the Viking ranch remains a mystery. The theory is that a Christian traveler brought it into Vestervang, or through barter, the item used as a brooch. , and a "senior" woman wears it in her outfit," Kastholm said.
The discoveries above
raise the question for scientists as to why viking jersey these precious jewels are present on a modest agricultural settlement?
The answer lies in a legendary place called Lejre, 10 kilometers south-southeast of Vestervang. "Legend has it that this is where the first Danish dynasties ruled," said Tom Christensen.
“Archaeological research shows that Lejre seems to be a very wealthy place. In 1850, a treasure trove of gold and silver, precious stones, a necklace, and a necklace were found in the nearby hills," Christensen said. According to him, Lejre's presence in close proximity to Vestervang helps explain the presence of the newly found jewelry, and it is possible that the site was given to a subordinate of King Lejre.