Black Star tattoo studio has played an important role of the Cambodia tattoo scene for almost a decade.
https://www.asialifemagazine.com/cambod ... arlie-han/About 16 to 17 years ago, I had no interest in tattoos at all. It just wasn’t interesting to me. Add in the fact that it can be quite expensive, painful, and people’s perception of tattoos as a sign of being a ‘bad’ person or a menace. I didn’t want any part of it.
After visiting my friends’ tattoo shops a couple of times, I suddenly realised that it was beautiful. And that’s where it all started. It wasn’t really hard to transition to it because, as a kid, I had always been good at drawing. Drawing and tattooing are two different things in terms of the texture and techniques involved though.
Prior to coming here to Cambodia, I had a tattoo shop in Korea. It had to be kept secret because in South Korea, you can’t just open a tattoo shop and start inking. Back home, males are required to serve the army for two years because of the North and South Korean conflict. Males with very visible or large tattoos, however, are not allowed to go to the army. And because some teenagers want to bypass that [the army], they get large tattoos instead. This made the government very angry and started raiding shops looking for licences.
Three years ago, I came here to visit and, after getting a feel of the city, I decided that I wanted to stay longer. I first opened a tattoo shop at the [Boeung Kak] lakeside and it ran for about a year, but we had to move out. I then opened another tattoo shop in Sihanoukville. It was then that Eddy, Paul and I came up with an idea to move it back to Phnom Penh and open a shop together.
Getting a tattoo is a commitment. Whenever a customer walks in, the first question I ask is the approximate percentage of actually wanting that tattoo. When I feel that they are not very sure of what they are saying, I ask them to just come back and think about it first. That way, I can make sure that when they do get the tattoo they want, they will not have any regrets and we will all be happy. That is my goal.