Worldcrunch
Instead of bringing home knickknacks, some travelers choose to collect tattoos — etching their memories into skin rather than stowing them on a shelf. Whether carefully planned or struck by impulse, these journeys suggest that ink itself has become a kind of passport. And sometimes, the whole point of the trip.
A new regulation in China is cracking down hard on tattoos. The law is ostensibly about minors, but some argue that it’s going too far and actively erasing the glorious Chinese past.
CAIRO — “Everyone wants a tattoo now in Egypt,” says 23-year-old Kareem Shaheen as he sits on his bed sketching the outline of a flash of lightning. Shaheen started to tattoo less than a year ago under the name “Monkey Tattoo,” and hopes to open the first street tattoo studio in Cairo. “People relate getting […]
MUNICH — Peter Laubach used a tattoo needle for the first time when he was 11 years old. A friend asked him for a sailboat tattoo, offering him four Bavarian meat loaf sandwiches as payment. He earned his friend’s appreciation and a sharp paternal slap for his efforts. Now 60 years old, Laubach is a […]
PARIS – At every exhibit opening, he takes off his shirt, sits on a pedestal, his back to the public, waiting for a visitor he will never see and doesn’t want to hear. Turning on his MP3 player in order to block out cruel comments and hurtful jokes is part of the ritual. Tim Steiner […]
TOKYO – Toru Hashimoto, the young and often controversial mayor of Osaka who shot to fame for his attacks on Japan’s central government and bureaucrats, has chosen a new target — but this time, attracting little sympathy from the Japanese youth. Last March, Hashimoto decided to take disciplinary action against government employees who did not […]