Inked: An inside look into life with tattoos

Though tattoos aren’t as taboo today as they were years ago, there are still stereotypes people have about them. While many appreciate the art, there are certain preconceived notions that inherently revolve around people who are tatted. In this interview, 34-year-old Zhu Zhu, gives readers a deeper look into her personal way of expressing herself.

“They’re very cool. I like them a lot,” she says about her body. “I like the art.” When asked if her tattoos have a specific meaning though, she answers, “No, there’s no meaning for my tattoos–it’s purely because I just like them.”

She also shed a light on how she still feels people stare sometimes–especially. on the street. “Yes I’m judged when I walk along the streets but I think it’s perfectly fine because it’s my body,” she explained, demonstrating a stable sense of self-awareness. “The only unpleasant thing about having tattoos is that when I go to my son’s school, I need to really dress up properly because the teachers kind of look at me.” She stressed though that she hasn’t considered removing any of her tattoos.

When asked about stereotypes she thinks people still have of tatted individuals, she cited the immediate silent exclusion. “I think that whether it’s a man or a woman who has a tattoo, the first thing that comes to people’s minds is that ‘this one must be an alien’,” she explained. She also mentioned the common stereotype of people having tattoos not being highly educated.

Though Zhu Zhu doesn’t exactly consider herself very highly educated, she said that she is actually doing quite well. “I started my own company and my station is actually called Niama Luxury,” she shared.

When asked about the right age to get a tattoo, she said that personally she thinks its a better idea to wait until one has finished school.”To me I think the legal age–18 or maybe 21 so long as your parents agree to it I think it’s fine, but not during those school days. If you’ve finished school and you get a tattoo, I think it’s perfectly fine.”

Zhu Zhu also made it a point to remind people that being tatted or not doesn’t have any effect on your actual life. “Having or not having a tattoo doesn’t affect your life,” she said, “It’s actually all about your mindset. We can’t stop others from judging who we are because we don’t live for others, we live for ourselves.