I’m still waiting for my copy of ‘Hori Smoku’ documentary and here is another interesting one that should be made more accessible: ‘tattooed under fire’ about soldiers and tattoos ( trailer).
In China tattoos seem to be a huge obstacle if one wants to be a soldier, though: ‘terrible tattoo, a sad way to lose college and army opportunities.’
Another Asia-related one is ‘Yakuza: Japan’s Not-So-Secret Mafia.’
My personal impression is that it’s a very American thing to combine years of experience to advertise a business – two artists with 10 years of experience each thus make 20 years of experience combined. Sometimes years of experience are pretty impressive anyway, though: the OH artist working here does really have (over) 31 years of experience under her own belt.
Another local shop and artist, this time from NJ, in an article about Tattoo Tony.
Nice, quite random tattoos in a blog post ‘Weekly Ink.’
The Living Canvas book by Karen L. Hudson reminded me that body art is not only about tattoos, piercings or scarification but also about less permanent forms of art; here pretty stunning examples of body painting!
Aniareads Weblog 
Great post Ania! You know as sad as it is to hear about soldiers tattooing themselves with their dog tags so that their families can identify them; a friend of mine and myself got to talking about tattoos being an identifier as a whole. People may mock us for our body art but if something were to happen be it a tragic accident or a suicide like Jason’s then people would still know it was us.
As for experience, I think people look upon that like they do designer clothes in some cases. I’ve been tattooed by artists that have a decade or more experience and they’re great, but when Val tattooed me having only a couple of years, she did a great job! However the same can’t be said for someone else with minimal experience who tattooed me once… So it really depends on the person I think.
I have to say that you better should have either ignored that CCTV article or set it in another context. China has a conscription army with a two-year compulsory service. Which is NOT regarded as attractive as this article wants to make you believe, and this is rather thinly disguised propaganda. Second, CCTV is not independent but under direct control of the Chinese KP’s propaganda deptartment. But the body painting link was great!
I try not to take any side – my main goal is to present what’s out there and it’s up to ppl to decide what to think.