Mr. Xing Haisong,
the artist in Johnlong Tattoo Center, is one
of the first people to engaged in professional
tattoo art since China opened up to the outside
world twenty years ago. When he was young,
he reveled in drawing and writing and showed
a great interest in art. When the exchange
of culture between the Taiwan Straits began,
Xing was just in his youth. At this time,
a relative of his who had been a tattoo artist
for a long time paid a visit to Shanghai.
And occasionally, they met each other. The
relative found out Xing's special gifts in
tattooing, therefore, he decided to pass on
to Xing all of his skills of tattooing. After
five-years of hard studies, in order to further
his skills, by the help of his master, Xing
went to Japan and learned from many famous
tattoo artists. Now he is an honour member
of the Tattoo club in Japan.
In 1997, Xing opened the first tattoo studio
in Shanghai. He tries his best to reduce the
negative effect of tattoo in most Chinese
people way of thinking and make them realize
that it is an actual art. Gradually more and
more people understand the meaning of tattooing
and begin to love it. In order to make lots
of tattoo fans' dream become reality, Xing
opens the first tattoo studio: Johnlong, at
the "D" Mall and Maoming Rd, North,
where is the downtown area of Shanghai. Based
on the persevering and excelsior pursuit of
tattoo art, Xing goes abroad to exchange experience
with other artists. His sophisticated skills
has attracted tons of interviews from home
and abroad journal and TV stations. Even the
German TV-2 made a special interview from
Europe of his famous artwork. Xing is also
employed by Plastic Surgery Center of Shanghai
to artistically cover up the scars that can't
be cleared thoroughly.
Mr. Xing's customers span throughout the world.
They may be from different diplomatic backgrounds,
movie stars, foreign merchants in Shanghai,
majordomo of hair of VIDAL SASSOON hairdressing
corporation, staffs of USA consulate in Shanghai,
CEOs of multinational corporations, tourists
stopping by Shanghai from home and abroad.
They also include tattoo lovers from the sports
and entertainment industry. During the National
holiday of 2002, the most famous band the
BackStreet Boys who paid a visit to Shanghai
and put on a show in Century Park then came
to our studio. In order to show his love for
music ,Shanghai and Johnlong tattoo, Kevin
specially had two Chinese characters 音乐，which
means music, tattooed on his arm.
With the growing popularity and love for tattooing,
Mr. Xing considers that he should try to make
tattooing more popular in this vast great
land, known as China. Especially in Shanghai,
where it is a metropolis the center of international
culture. For this reason, Mr. Xing declined
many invitations from abroad just to keep
this art form in Shanghai, China.
Meanwhile, Mr. Xing hopes to openly exchange
and discuss the art of tattooing with other
artists. |
|
