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Ashlyn Chak

Tattooing has been around in Hong Kong since World War II, when James Ho set up the first parlour in Tsim Sha Tsui. But for years, getting a tattoo was taboo for most city residents.
A main source of business for tattoo artists until 2019 was the American warships that used to make regular rest and recuperation stops in Hong Kong.
Wan Chai, with its girlie bars, was a favourite pit stop for sailors, who would also drop into Ricky and Pinky’s tattoo parlour, where they would pay for permanent reminders of their off-duty bliss. Otherwise, there was Tsim Sha Tsui.
For the majority Chinese population, tattoos were regarded as the exclusive tags of triad members and unruly youngsters – so nobody from a decent family would be caught with one.
Today Hong Kong is no longer a stop for American sailors, and tattoos have become a lot more accepted in polite society.
Contemporary tattoo studios have popped up all over the city. The Post spoke to artists at three of Hong Kong’s most prominent studios ahead of this year’s Hong Kong China International Tattoo Exhibition from October 4 to 6.

1. Star Crossed Tattoo
Founded in an old walk-up in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon in 2005, Star Crossed Tattoo is one of the city’s most enduring tattoo shops even though it has changed hands twice.
When its Hong Kong founder Julia Wilson emigrated to the UK in 2010, South Africans Ross Turpin and Rich Phipson took it over and ran the shop for 13 years. Just before they left in 2023, they relocated the business across Victoria Harbour to a quiet part of Wan Chai.

When Turpin and Phipson left, former resident artist at the parlour Rika Korponay, and illustrator Megan Lancaster, decided to take the reins to preserve the shop’s legacy.
Now in its third iteration, Star Crossed has a core team of four female artists, which Korponay tells the Post was unplanned. However, the space “feels gentler” and perhaps “eases a lot of anxiety” for first-time visitors who may find it intimidating to walk into a tattoo shop, she says.
With Yahel Kfir’s nature-themed blackwork, Takco Siu’s bold, classic aesthetics, Korponay’s vibrant, traditional art and Lancaster taking the odd walk-in and running the shop, the artists recently celebrated their first year together at the end of August and look forward to keeping Star Crossed Tattoo’s legacy alive.
1/F, 1 Sun Street, Wan Chai

2. Mei Wah Tattoo
In 2012, the artist who goes by the name Jynt opened a tattoo studio in Yau Ma Tei to have a regular venue for artistic exchanges with overseas artists he had met at tattoo conventions around the world.
Entering its 10th year at its Mong Kok location, Mei Wah Tattoo is an established parlour where Jynt works alongside long-term resident artists Kovit and Leon Lam.

Each artist is highly experienced with a distinctive style. Kovit, who joined Mei Wah in 2018 when he moved from Nepal, focuses on Southeast Asian tribal patterns and ornamental lines that flow with the shape of the human body.
Lam has his own studio in Sai Kung, but works at Mei Wah for clients who may prefer the convenience of Kowloon. Jynt tells the Post that Lam’s style is more on the “abstract, black and heavy” side and that he is “more like a friend but is the closest thing I have to a mentor”.
Jynt says he was initially drawn to realism at the start of his tattooing career, but has been diving deep into Chinese art history for the past 10 years, often taking inspiration from “porcelain, embroidery and architecture” as he wants to “do something that reflects this region’s tradition and heritage”.
4/F, 703 Shanghai Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon

3. The 59 Tattoo
The 59 Tattoo was founded in 2015 in To Kwa Wan, Kowloon, but is now in Wan Chai. The new location is not a matter of convenience but of “sentimental value”, says founder Marcus Yuen.
“Wan Chai is one of the first cradles of tattoo history in Hong Kong. In the old days, you could only find parlours in the areas of Tsim Sha Tsui and Wan Chai, which sailors frequented.”

Around 2016, he began his efforts to revive traditional Hong Kong tattooing, a unique aesthetic that was once popular among sailors passing through Hong Kong.
The 59 Tattoo is now a treasure cove of artefacts, including stencils and drawings from the 1960s and 70s, which Yuen says was an era when Hong Kong tattoos were internationally recognised.
He adds that Western-style “sailor tattoos” were no longer in vogue in the 1980s and local artists began to incorporate an East-meets-West flair into their designs, referencing dragons, phoenixes, tigers, gods and the like.
While there used to be a wider array of styles at his shop, in 2020, Yuen unified the aesthetic by only using resident artists of American and Hong Kong traditional styles. The goal, he says, is to bring back the classic culture of sailor tattoos.
One of The 59’s most recent and internationally known clients is Hong Kong-British actor Jason Tobin, who starred as Young Jun in the HBO Max series Warrior (2019-2023).












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by Jason Tobin (@jsntbn)



In August, 49-year-old Tobin posted a photo of himself showing off a bluish-green Chinese dragon tattoo on his left forearm with the caption: “I got my first tattoo at the infamous Ricky and Pinky Tattoo Parlour in Wan Chai when I was a teenager which is long gone now.
“But HK vintage tattooing is being kept alive by Marcus Yuen. On a quick trip back to HK to shoot a movie and to see my Dad I had to pick up a souvenir …”
14 Kennedy Street, Wan Chai




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Co-owners of Star Crossed Tattoo Megan Lancaster (in white) and Rika Korponay at their studio in Wan Chai. We visit three prominent tattoo parlours ahead of this year’s Hong Kong China International Tattoo Exhibition, from October 4 to 6. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Star Crossed Tattoo’s artists (from left): Takco Siu, Yahel Kfir, Megan Lancaster and Rika Korponay. Lancaster and Korponay are co-owners. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

The interior of Star Crossed Tattoo in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Mei Wah Tattoo founder and artist JYNT in his parlour in Mong Kok. Photo: Jonathan Wong

From left: Kovit, founder Jynt, and Leon Lam are all artists at Mei Wah Tattoo in Mong Kok. Photo: Jonathan Wong

The 59 Tattoo founder Marcus Yuen at his studio in Wan Chai. Photo: May Tse

Yuen moved his studio to Wan Chai, one of the first areas in Hong Kong to have tattoo parlours. Photo: May Tse

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Members of the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance team spin balls of joss sticks as the “dragon” winds through Tai Hang on September 29, 2023. Photo: AFP

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Crowds watch the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance on September 28, 2023. Photo: Sam Tsang

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