Many people often think that the image of a tattoo artist is someone with a very cool style, covered in tattoos, with very unique clothes and hair. But meeting Tran Bich Ngoc (28 years old, Hanoi) in real life will see a completely opposite image because she is dynamic, gentle, and feminine.
Few people know that Ngoc is famous With the ability to cover scars with tattoos, many people call him a “witch” when turning scars of all shapes into works of art. Reporter Dan Tri had a conversation with “the artist tattoo” Bich Ngoc about this interesting job.
“You are doing a good job!”
– Hello Ngoc. How did you get into tattooing to cover scars?
– I started tattooing in 2012 when I was a 2nd year student at the School of Fine Arts Design. Hanoi University of Theater and Cinema. At that time, a classmate and I liked to draw, so we only thought of drawing on pork rinds for fun as an experience, but we never thought of becoming tattoo artists.
Everything happens. to me it’s very natural. At first, I had no intention of specializing in tattooing to cover scars, but I continued to do regular tattooing and gradually became a passion with more daily exposure. There are people who have scars that other tattoo places don’t accept when they come to me and I sympathize. I understand that each wound on their body brings sadness and self-esteem, so they put their trust in me. So I responded to that belief with the desire to make them more beautiful.
After successfully doing the first case, I cultivated to develop more in-depth research on skin types and scars. Gradually, people kept coming to me to get tattoos to cover their scars. I have been able to do difficult cases so I am even more confident. Now more than 9 years have passed, this job has become an indispensable thing in my life.
Remembering the first successful “mission” must have been a very impressive “case”?
I still remember I once received an email from a woman born in 1979. After giving birth, she had sagging abdominal skin so she had to have a fake belly and navel done, but it ended up looking distorted. That year, I was only about 19 or 20 years old. I felt shocked for a long time when I first looked at the scar.
When she lifted up my belly, I still felt shocked, but I had to try to calm myself down. and let her not be embarrassed. We both give each other confidence. I tattooed feathers combined with stylized flowers and successfully covered the scar on that deformed abdomen. I took a photo and posted it on Facebook and received everyone’s sympathetic attention because it showed the mother’s great sacrifice.
After that, I did many other cases and gradually succeeded. The community is more concerned and says that mentioning Ngoc means remembering scars. People say you can get a normal tattoo anywhere, but if you get a tattoo to cover a scar, you have to go to Ngoc. That is a spiritual encouragement for me to strive to do better every day.
Looking at these scars on the belly, one can understand the great mission of a mother
– Not yet 30 years old, but you are an “old man” in the field of scar cover tattoos. 10 years have passed since that “shock” when you were 19 or 20 until now, can you share some professional skills?
– I work for about 25 people a month who want to cover their scars. Depending on the area of the scar, I can do it for a few people with small scars a day. The special feature of this job is that the scars are completely different.
Contacting with many customers has helped me gradually have the ability to sense and look at scars to know when they were made. or no part eats squid, no part has thick skin and no thin skin. If the skin is thicker, the needle must be inserted, but if the skin is thinner, how should it be done so as not to tear the skin…
I want everyone to be different. Everyone has their own unique ego and deserves to be special. So I don’t want to do it in an industrial way where everyone gets the same tattoo. This is probably a limitation but I stand by that opinion.
The tattoo will follow each person for life, so it is necessary to choose a tattoo that matches the appearance, personality and scar surface… The tattoo must be The combination of many such factors and just using one common image for everyone will no longer be creative, and scars and tattoos will no longer be a unique personal feature.
I will meet with customers to talk first to understand each other better and design a suitable image for each person. I have a separate design process for each scar. I will take a photo of the scar and put it on the iPad, draw a sketch for the customer to see, and then introduce ideas about the color patterns of the tattoo for the customer to choose from. After both parties agree on everything, they start working.
I personally like innovation, so when doing this job I always have to think creatively, so I really like it. Every day that passes is a new challenge to help me overcome my own limits.
< p>– I remember when you started this job, society was not very sympathetic to the tattoo profession and at that time you were a student at the University of Theater and Cinema. So what kind of obstacles did you encounter?
– Indeed, at that time, many people were still unsympathetic and even discriminated against tattoos. I was once turned away by some friends like an excellent student who fell into the path of sin (laughs). I don’t care about arguing with anyone, I just focus on what I do. My parents didn’t object, just reminded me to do any job as long as it doesn’t affect my studies.
However, sometimes when some people turn their backs on me, I feel betrayed. hurt. At that time, I chose to take a break to work as a costume designer on a certain film project to regain my spirit and reconsider what I needed most.
The guests who came to my house To get a tattoo, my mother always talked to me and sympathized. One time my mother told me: “You are doing a good job helping people obscure a part of their body’s defects!”. That has become the motivation to help me overcome all the difficulties in my career.
When customers text me to thank me and share that they are more confident, I feel happier and more energetic. Positive energy is spread. Until now, I feel lucky and always grateful for believing in myself to give myself a chance and help others change to become better.
“You are helping everyone The person who obscures a defective part of the body is doing a good job!” Her mother’s encouragement helps Ngoc have the motivation to overcome difficulties in her career.
Scars are more painful when abused
– Can you share with me some stories behind those scars?
In mid-November, there was a guest from Ho Chi Minh City who flew to Hanoi to quarantine himself. After 7 days of separation, I went to my place to get a tattoo covering the scars on my arms, back, and abdomen due to burns from childhood. Before the Covid-19 epidemic, there were also people from Europe and America who flew to Hanoi to see me and got tattoos to cover their scars.
Another guest also in Ho Chi Minh City had a very long scar due to being beaten by her husband. slashing while she was pregnant was more painful than violence. The accident wound across her abdomen was very deep. Fortunately, the baby in her womb was not injured or affected much. At the present time, the baby has grown up and his health is completely stable.
Or like 7 years ago, a woman had an accident while pregnant. At the most dangerous moment, people can only hold their breath to pray. And luck really smiled on her. The cesarean section and the accident surgery happened at the same time and saved her and the baby’s lives.
Every time they look at the scar, they remember painful memories so they want to get a tattoo to cover it up . People who grow up with such scars have great psychological damage.
There are many stories that I find impressive. Most recently, I often work with women with breast cancer. When I saw the scars from mastectomy, I felt like I was touching the weakest point in my soul. I felt that the woman had gone through something very terrible. The woman had to have her breasts removed and her chest reconstructed, but it was a scarred breast with no nipples.
The women told me how they had to go through painful days like how. Physical pain is only part of it, but psychological pain is more severe. Being a woman, I understand how great the pain is and think about the situation if that unfortunate thing happens, how I have to deal with the loss of my body that is no longer normal.
For men, I think having scars on the body is easier to overcome than for us women. Women are beautiful so it hurts them a lot. Having encountered many stories like this, I feel that I am luckier and I sympathize and want to share and support the sisters.
A customer confided to me that in life there are 2 sisters. grateful that it was the doctor who treated her and me for breast cancer because you two gave her life again. That made me very surprised and reminded me that we need to do better and more beautiful to make them more complete.
– It seems that every tattoo that helps others is really a once “got” to realize the precious things about life with you?
– Contacting with each person brings me a story one at a time. different experiences. From there I learned an experience for myself. I learned how to listen and share sincerely in a way that makes the tattoo person feel sympathetic. That helps my life.
I myself am a fastidious person, especially at work and that has a significant impact on my daily life. As an artist, my personality is a bit high. Thanks to encountering many stories like that, I feel that life is very impermanent, so I just live happily and gently. Every problem is only complicated because you make it complicated for yourself, so whatever you can do, keep it simple to ease your mind.
– Talking about work with so much enthusiasm and meaning, you intend to Teaching the craft of tattooing to cover scars to help more people?
– I taught a few people before, but in the past 2 years the Covid-19 pandemic has forced me to lots of interruptions. To follow this path, many factors are needed, understanding the taste and thinking about composition is extremely important.
Teaching tattoo techniques is one thing, but thinking and developing is like I can’t teach anything, I can only give direction, but how much the learner develops depends on his or her ability. The people I teach who don’t have any friends follow this path and just do normal tattoos. Currently, there are still very few people who cover their scars with tattoos like I do.
– What are your future plans?
– I want to research some new methods. I talked to a number of dermatologists who learned that abroad there is a new type of machine that mixes inks together to produce an ink that has the color most similar to the tattooed person’s skin.
Because So I really want to go abroad to study but because of the epidemic I can’t go. This will help people with scars on their faces. I still receive many messages from people with pitiful scars on their faces that cannot be treated with tattoos, so it is necessary to find an optimal solution for these cases.
– Thank you for the interesting conversation!
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