The woman in the photo is not smiling – and she doesn’t have to. A network of thin dark lines covers her face from forehead to chin, applied decades ago in the Chin State mountains. Her eyes are closed, and in this lies the complete peace of someone with nothing to hide. It was with such a meeting – a chance encounter in 2001 in southern Chin State – that the project began, which German photographer Jens Uwe Parkitny has been pursuing for a quarter of a century. From October 14th to 17th, his works will be shown at the AIA Khit exhibition space, located in the restored colonial halls of The Secretariat in Yangon.
Tattoo Articles
Hong Kong Tattoos: How Sailor Style Merged with Chinese Symbolism
When Taiwanese tattoo artist Jimmy Shay and street photographer Yu Chan traveled to Hong Kong to document the city’s fading post-war tattoo history, they agreed on one rule: models would be found only on the street, with no staged or studio sessions. “We relied purely on intuition,” Shay recalls of the project, which formally launched in 2023 but actually began earlier in the form of casual phone snapshots. Since most tattoos were hidden under clothing, the pair had to first persuade strangers to show their skin, and these encounters rarely went according to plan.
Tattoos and Femininity: Why Women Are Removing Their Ink Again
Social media is increasingly featuring posts where women publicly express regret about their tattoos and warn others against getting them. This isn’t just about changing tastes; it reflects a deeper shift in how the beauty industry defines “normative” femininity. Currently, beauty brands are actively promoting the image of the “natural” and “classic” girl: clear skin without a single scar, makeup in the “I just woke up” style, dissolving fillers instead of pronounced features. Against this backdrop, tattoos have suddenly found themselves outside the approved framework.
Jean Silva’s Tattoos: Meaning of Chest and Arm Tattoos
Behind the mask of one of the most aggressive fighters in the UFC’s lightweight division hides a man who has transferred his most vulnerable feelings directly onto his skin. Jean Silva isn’t one to get tattoos “by eye” for beauty’s sake. Each of his designs is an encrypted message, and the fighter himself provided the key in an interview: “It’s a lock that only opens with real emotions. Essentially, that’s it. Only real people around me.” These words set the tone for everything that can be read in his ink.
Tattoos in the Persian Empire: Symbolism and History
When we talk about ancient tattoos, Egyptian mummies, Polynesian patterns, or Slavic protective signs immediately come to mind. But the Persian Empire – one of the greatest powers of the ancient world – is almost not associated with tattoo culture in the public consciousness. And this, frankly, is unfair. Over a millennium of rule from the Achaemenids to the Sasanians, there have been quite a few testimonies, legends, and archaeological finds that allow us to reconstruct the picture: how, where, and why patterns were applied to the skin in a country that stretched from the Indus to Egypt. In this article, we will break down the topic bone by bone – from what is truly confirmed by science to the symbolic language of Persian ornaments and practical recommendations on where to dig if you want to study the topic deeper.