Chinese tattoos are the stamp of a new generation, but still bad art

I doubt that the new National Museum of Chinese Written Language in Anyang will have a display of "skin art," but the Western fascination with Chinese character tattoos is, in an odd way, a tribute to the artistry of the bamboo brush.

Except that tattoo artists are using needles instead of brushes.

It seems to me that needles can never blend meaning and image into the abstract expression of brushwork on paper. Famous calligraphy like Mao Zedong's survives as a true art form even when the writing is carved in stone. I doubt it would last long as skin art.

Chinese characters tattooed on the body parts of NBA stars, rock musicians and sports celebrities like David Beckham seem an even more bizarre fad when you consider that the tattoo addicts have no idea what the characters represent.

A sports jock could have inked on his biceps and go through life blissfully unaware that he's permanently branded himself a "bastard."

Western tattoo artists are usually not Chinese. They often copy the characters with no understanding of stroke order. Sometimes they stupidly draw the images backward, which makes sense only if the tattoo addict is admiring himself in a bathroom mirror.

One or two wrong character strokes and a tattooed Western girl could be blithely announcing, "I am a public toilet."

This doesn't seem to matter to tattooed people, nor to master Chinese calligraphers who tell us that words and meaning are not essential to an appreciation of this ancient but highly abstract art form.

But if you don't understand the Chinese word for "capital," how could you appreciate the "Dancing Beijing" Olympics logo as brilliantly stylized calligraphy rather than a stick figure any child could draw?

Needlepoint Chinese tattoos in block characters can't come close to the wild and spiritual brush strokes that define masters of the art, such as Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty or Zhang Xu of the Tang Dynasty, who never put brush to paper until he was drunk on white whiskey.

Chinese friends tell me that when they look at classic calligraphy they feel the different personalities of different artists expressing similar words and concepts in different styles, letting their imaginations run wild with words in the shape of snakes, tadpole tails, dragons and pagodas.

No matter if the brush strokes are drunken slashes or delicate dribbles of ink, they still represent words, not some Westernized idea that Chinese characters are "cool" because they look exotic or mysterious or inscrutable.

Those were the same terms that were used to describe China during the nation's long isolation in the world, before we in the West learned that the "inscrutable East" was extremely scrutable if foreigners took the trouble to actually learn something about Chinese culture.

Only then can they know that Chinese tattoos are to Chinese calligraphy what comic book cartoons are to Leonardo daVinci.

Source: Global Times