Transcript (Cantonese to English 粵譯英)
Hosts: Bot and Keith
Guest: Kydd (Tattoo artist)
Bot: Hello everybody. Welcome to our Random Talk programme again. My English is mediocre. Let me introduce. This is Keith.
Keith: Hello.
Bot: And Kydd.
Kydd: Hello. What’s up?
Bot: Hi. Let us try this today.
Keith: It’s a recording.
Bot: We’ll record this session. The previous show was lagging – we raised our hands but the sound had yet to appear.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: It was complicated. For this talk, we will use one camera and one angle. Next to the video you will see photos flashing, those are Kydd’s works. What are we discussing today?
Keith: Tattoo.
Bot: Tattoo.
Kydd: It is about the art of tattoo.
Bot: Art related to tattoo.
Kydd: Yup.
Bot: As you can see, both of us are outsiders of your industry and our skin is clean.
Keith: That’s right. We really don’t have tattoo.
Kydd: I was thinking just now. Have you ever thought of getting tattooed?
Bot: My wife asked me if I want to get tattooed. But my mother wouldn’t accept it. My wife and children should be okay about it.
Kydd: Because I saw that you are a rocker and had long hair. It might suit you. It’s okay.
Bot: Frankly speaking, I am kind of afraid of it.
Kydd: Afraid of the pain?
Bot: I don’t know. I wonder if I might get addicted about it and I get more and more tattoos. I can’t get rid of it, even if I wash it.
Kydd: It might come to this stage. If you have planning, most of those…
Bot: Why don’t you get one?
Keith: I prefer cleanliness. I don’t think I’ll get it.
Bot: Never thought of it?
Keith: Never thought of it.
Bot: For friends who are just watching us. Let me introduce again. This guy in white shirt is Keith, working on writing business. As bald as I do. He writes English and works on translation.
Bot: This is our friend and guest for today, Kydd.
Kydd: Yes sir.
Bot: He’s working on tattoo.
Kydd: I have a part-time job to teach drawing.
Bot: Teaching drawing for part time. It is related to drawing. I am Bot. We are glad to see you all again. If you have questions, when we share the video…
Keith: Comment.
Bot: Yup. You guys can leave us comments and we’ll reply as we see them. You can share and reply. We haven’t tried this method, so let’s try it out.
Keith: Yup.
Kydd: Yup.
Bot: Where shall we start now? Kydd, how long have you been working in this industry?
Kydd: I thought you wanted to ask if it is painful to get tattooed.
Kydd: I was kind of… Alright, back to your question. I have the knowledge of tattoo for more than ten years. But regarding my experience, I am not working on it every day. Customers come over irregularly. On and off, I have five to six years of experience. I am in the industry for more than ten years, of which five to six years I am helping customers to get tattooed. Including my understanding of the industry.
Bot: Did you get yourself tattooed before taking up the job? Or you worked on it and tattooed yourself?
Kydd: How is it?
Bot: You have tattoo as well. Can you show us?
Keith: You started working in the industry before tattooing yourself?
Kydd: Yes. I like tattoo and I tried to learn more about the industry, because I love drawing and art.
Keith: Yup.
Kydd: I knew a tattoo guru and interacted with him. I was a busybody. We were using Friendster back then.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Wow. Friendster.
Keith: That was so long ago.
Kydd: I added my first mentor, a guru who introduced me into the industry.
Bot: Okay.
Kydd: I asked him a lot of questions about tattoo. Is it painful? Such as these questions. He asked if I was very interested in tattoo. “If you are interested, come over and look for me in Johor Bahru and I can teach you,” he said.
Kydd: I was getting so excited back then.
Keith: Did he charge you tuition fee?
Kydd: Nope. That was also the time when he first ventured out in the industry and he wanted to…
Keith: Have someone to help out.
Kydd: Get someone to help him. That was his plan.
Keith: Yup.
Kydd: I entered the industry by chance.
Bot: Speaking of which, tattoo is kind of weird. Let’s say you have a piece of blank paper.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: If you don’t know drawing, you grab a pencil and you are afraid if you draw it wrongly.
Keith: Unless you have many pencils and papers.
Bot: If you draw it wrongly on a piece of paper, you can throw it away. How about tattoo?
Kydd: For a period of time, I gave up tattoo work, this is one of the reasons. You have the pressure.
Keith: You can’t afford a mistake.
Kydd: I worried if I drew the tattoo pattern wrongly. You know that?
Bot: I see.
Kydd: That was the time I followed my mentor in Kuala Lumpur. It was a secondary school vacation. I didn’t go deeper, because of the pressure. Subsequently, I worked on design, which was what I studied.
Bot: I see.
Kydd: We had a senior who supported us to set up a firm to work on design. But we didn’t make money. From my home state Penang, a boss knew I could draw well. He couldn’t draw well but he knew how to work on it, because he had experiences in tattoo.
Bot: I see.
Kydd: Tattoo was not as advanced back then. You didn’t have such knowledge. He asked if I was interested to help him. I had no money so I had no choice. Since it was near to my home, I joined his company and I rebuilt my self-confidence from there.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: That’s weird. I didn’t try to get a tattoo. If I get a pen with indispensable ink, and then…
Keith: So that you can show off for a few days.
Bot: You can’t erase it. But your lines will still go astray. Take a look at their work…
Kydd: This is…
Keith: It is delicate.
Bot: Delicate.
Kydd: I gave you two folders, right?
Bot: I’ve included all.
Kydd: As you can see, this is my office in Damansara. I drew and scanned this earlier. It became my online portfolio so that others can view it.
Bot: What you draw (on paper), you can tattoo it?
Kydd: Not 100 per cent. On paper and on skin, you have different tone of colour. For a tattoo, it is more than 80 per cent of what I initially drafted.
Keith: Do you draw the draft on the paper?
Kydd: Most of the time I am drawing on a piece of paper.
Keith: From your master draft, you start working on the tattoo pattern.
Kydd: I’ll trace it like a piece of carbon paper. The lines of the carbon paper are imprinted on the body part before I start the tattoo lines. I need to refer back to the draft though. If it comes with less boxes and it is of freestyle, I’ll give it a freehand drawing.
Bot: Freehand is possible.
Kydd: Some of them, not all though.
Bot: So you will have a main pattern in the middle, you add something freely on its edge.
Kydd: That’s right. Take a look at this. Or just now…
Kydd: Let’s say this head. I need a freehand drawing for its background. For background such as this, I need a feeling to draw it on one’s skin. I rarely work on this picture though. I like Marvel and Superhero. That’s my own drawing.
Bot: Okay. Drawing is the minimum requirement for a tattoo artist.
Kydd: That’s the best. You draw well and you’ll learn tattoo work pretty quickly. You already have the basic skills. This is how things work, same for other jobs as well.
Keith: How long it takes, if you draw something on skin?
Kydd: I need to refer back to the draft. If it is a simple line of words, it can be done within 45 minutes to an hour. It depends on the size of the draft.
Bot: Some customers get a dragon pattern tattooed on their back. Does it take several days?
Kydd: It has to done in several stages. Maybe I work on the upper part, which is the dragon head, and followed by the body part. Or I can draw the dragon body and subsequently, its head.
Keith: Some people have their hands and legs tattooed, such as some footballers.
Kydd: Yup.
Keith: Some have leopard pattern.
Kydd: Some people have that. But nowadays, you see some patterns which are previously unthinkable. In the past, we didn’t browse and view a lot of things on the internet. We had tribal and The Rock. Do you know his tattoo?
Bot: Okay. It is like a decorative pattern.
Kydd: Such as a totem. Do you know Alex To (杜德偉)? Those are the trendy ones. Because we didn’t have the choice of other patterns.
Bot: I see.
Kydd: In modern days, the internet is so advanced…
Bot: Such as this pattern.
Kydd: Yup.
Keith: Something you didn’t think of previously.
Kydd: Yup. Such as this one. It looks like a brush.
Bot: It is sprayed.
Kydd: Nope. It was drawn with a brush and it has deeper and lighter tone. That’s the feeling (of such work).
Bot: It is peculiar. It looks interesting.
Kydd: It is getting more advanced now. Those patterns are surreal.
Keith: Yup.
Kydd: I am really…
Bot: I saw someone shared something on the internet. It is very special. If someone lost a finger or something, the tattoo artist drew a fingernail tattoo for him.
Kydd: Such cases are abundant.
Bot: Or someone fell down and had a scar. They get tattooed to cover it up.
Kydd: Make it look nicer. Such as stress mark, some girls have white marks. They covered those parts with their own skin tone.
Bot: I see.
Kydd: A company provides this service. I saw it on the internet. But I am not sure if they are working on tattoo or something else. If you work on that single service…
Bot: You’ll have business.
Kydd: You can get business.
Bot: It is not something that you will regret.
Kydd: They don’t need a pattern. You are just covering something up.
Bot: Some like flower patterns but they worried if someone sees it.
Kydd: Some ladies gave birth and they had scars.
Bot: Stretch marks.
Kydd: I am not sure about the term.
Keith: Is it permanent, if you have a tattoo?
Kydd: It is for your lifetime.
Keith: Do some customers request a short-term tattoo? So that they have it for fun for five days or half year? And it fades away naturally.
Kydd: Half-year patterns… As far as I am concerned, I have not come across such thing. Some patterns appear for one week and it fades away.
Bot: You spray on it.
Kydd: You spray it and there is also Henna of Indian style on your hands.
Bot: I see.
Kydd: It lasts for one week. As for eyebrow embroidery, I wonder why they need to touch it up each year. The ink for embroidery gets lighter.
Keith: I see.
Kydd: I once thought of using embroidery ink on tattoo.
Bot: Eyebrow embroidery is different. If the colour doesn’t fade away, the girl becomes Angry Bird.
Kydd: Yup.
Bot: The old design style had dark eyebrows.
Kydd: Yup. They still have that now. Look at the black people’s thick eyebrows.
Bot: Some embroidery works look nice.
Kydd: It looks natural. They made progress.
Keith: It is for your lifetime. How do they become so sure that they want the tattoo for their whole life?
Kydd: I’ll first discuss with my customers. I still let them call the shot though.
Keith: Yup.
Kydd: I didn’t… I am familiar with some customers and I asked them to think twice. Frankly speaking, some customers are not that close and they are introduced by my friends. If I find a tattoo pattern to be incompatible with their physique, I will suggest them to think twice.
Keith: You speak up when the patterns look irrelevant.
Kydd: I need to struggle a bit. If I say something, I might lose his business. That’s my dilemma. I tried to let go a bit. I made more suggestions in the past, because I treasure my customers’ skin.
Keith: Yup.
Kydd: I have a responsibility. I feel down when they say they are unhappy with my work.
Keith: I can answer Bot’s question now. As to why I didn’t think of getting a tattoo.
Bot: Uh-huh.
Keith: I am not sure if I want that pattern for my whole life.
Bot: I see.
Kydd: That’s something you need to consider.
Bot: I like some patterns though. Some guys have a pattern of neck cover. That is a polite style among tattoo patterns.
Kydd: It doesn’t look rude.
Bot: It doesn’t look fierce. That person might look rude with his original skin tone of his neck. But he get tattooed and looks like he wore a suit.
Kydd: I see.
Bot: That’s my feeling. It looks nice.
Kydd: That’s another way of thinking.
Bot: My way of thinking.
Kydd: I think it looks rude when it is too much.
Keith: It becomes unbearable.
Kydd: I am a tattoo artist but I cover it up with longer sleeves. Some friends don’t believe it when I say I am a tattoo artist. But as I accumulate my portfolio, I don’t mind.
Bot: The person with neck tattoo, he looks smart when he wears a t-shirt. That’s what I think.
Kydd: Think about it then. Get a bow tie style.
Keith: Bow tie?
Bot: Not that I wanna get a bow tie tattoo. It is a neck cover.
Kydd: Do you have that photo? I wanna take a look.
Bot: It is the vocalist of 21 Pilot.
Kydd: Alright.
Bot: His is also a neck cover. It is stylish. The Rock has half his body tattooed. But you need to have his physique to be good looking.
Kydd: This is also an important point. I told my customers that they have to carry the tattoo. Not that they are controlled by the tattoo. If one has a tattoo but the pattern affects his image, I don’t think that is okay.
Keith: You must be able to carry the pattern.
Kydd: Yup. Some have The Rock’s tattoo pattern. But are you as physically fit as him? You can’t carry the feeling of the pattern, even if I follow exactly the same drawing.
Bot: He is really big-sized.
Kydd: Yup.
Keith: When someone is ageing, he has looser skin. Does that affect the pattern?
Kydd: More or less, and wrinkles appear. It changes together with the growth of your skin. It doesn’t look ugly. It is slightly different.
Bot: Do you add some strokes?
Kydd: You have looser skin as you age. You may add some strokes. It is another type of beauty if you leave it there. It is all about the feeling of the pattern.
Keith: That depends on the individuals.
Kydd: Yup.
Keith: Did someone get tattooed and it affects their work? Take Shawn Yue (余文樂) for example. Does he have tattoos all over his body? That’s why he wears long sleeves all the time.
Kydd: Sorry.
Kydd: He still had a contract back then.
Keith: Yup.
Kydd: He had no contract now, so he get his whole body tattooed.
Bot: If I were a director, I don’t mind it. Because he is stylish.
Kydd: Yup.
Bot: A stylish man.
Kydd: That’s why he can carry the tattoo pattern. He is tattooed but you don’t feel like he is a baddy. He has his style.
Bot: He is stylish. I followed his Instagram account and he looks stylish, even when he wears short pants. But why don’t new film productions look for him? It is very normal now.
Kydd: Take a look at Nick Cheung (張家輝). He adds some tattoos for some films.
Bot: He adds it for some films.
Kydd: The level of acceptance is higher now. Back to your question about someone has their job affected because of tattoo. I have tattooed two to three teachers. Two of them teach in kindergarten with a Caucasian principal. That is no issue. Another person taught in secondary school. But I wonder if he is still teaching.
Bot: It is okay for them to have tattoos on hidden parts.
Kydd: That teacher had it on his lower arm and wore long sleeves. Alright, on the issue of accepting it or not. Just recently, there is an Indian doctor who gets tattooed on his upper arm. He cares if someone sees it. He said his professional ethics did not prohibit tattoos. You have to be smart. Not that you make it too obvious a tattoo.
Keith: Given our weather here, it definitely doesn’t work, if you are to wear long sleeves every day.
Kydd: That’s why they have to think twice.
Keith: If you are to get all your hands tattooed.
Bot: To a certain extent, I am not sure about both of you. I wasn’t categorised as a good-looking guy since young. I don’t fall under the handsome category. For this type of people, tattoo might help them. He might look…
Kydd: Stylish. It is a sort of beautification.
Bot: Some Caucasian guys are bald. Their hairline moves back, and the top of the head becomes bald. They cut all their hair and put on some tattoos. It looks better.
Kydd: They keep some beard.
Bot: They become young again.
Keith: Do Coldplay members have tattoos?
Bot: They might have it.
Kydd: Most of them do. Rock bands have it.
Keith: Coldplay members have serious hair loss problem.
Bot: But the Caucasians make themselves good-looking. Despite their hair loss, they still look good.
Keith: The British need it, because they have serious hair loss problem. That’s true.
Bot: For the Chinese, whether you have bald crown or receding hairline, you don’t have any pattern to play around with it.
Kydd: I can help you draw some black dots.
Bot: Dots…
Kydd: I can draw sideburns. I have it here, but my hair covers it up. You can see it when I cut all my hair. I have less hair and I get tattooed so that it looks thicker.
Keith: It is painful to get your head tattooed.
Kydd: It is painful but I don’t remember the feeling.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: If you ask me, if my hairline recedes even more, I might keep a ponytail like Wong Fei-hung. Who would care?
Keith: We are lucky that we have receding hairline after 30-something. Some Brits have it when they are 20-something.
Bot: I have high hairline. But previously I had long hair covering my forehead. When I tied it, it looks like I have high hairline. It doesn’t really matter.
Kydd: It doesn’t matter. It is a beautiful record of your life. Take a look at Steve Jobs. He had long hair in the past. Look at how he evolved from long hair to less hair. It is a beautiful record.
Bot: He is quite stylish.
Kydd: I worried about it in the past. Baldness doesn’t look good. I don’t mind now. My friends asked if I worried about baldness.
Bot: But this is part of our gene. You can’t escape from it.
Keith: Inescapable.
Kydd: Inescapable.
Keith: My viewpoint is that receding hairline is better than bald crown, which is even worse.
Kydd: Bald crown starts from behind…
Keith: It is very obvious. We have high hairline, keep a very short hairstyle and it is comfortable. Others see it as a comfortable hairstyle as well, and you don’t feel hot. For bald crown, whatever hairstyle you have, the baldness is still there. That is quite troublesome.
Bot: I have a friend who also plays band. He said he saw a rocker in his fifties or sixties. He has thick hair and plays band. But when he shakes his head, his bald crown is exposed.
Keith: That is as if a lake in an oasis.
Bot: That’s really…
Kydd: There is this movie… I think I saw something like that. Well, forget it.
Keith: It is challenging though, if someone gets you to tattoo a bald crown.
Kydd: Why so?
Keith: Because it expands as if a lake on his head. Do you dot…
Kydd: If he wants it simple, I can put on the dots without design. If he is a stylish person, I would suggest him to add some flowering pattern. As if you have some patterns when you cut your hair.
Bot: If he cuts all his hair, it looks weird if he keeps a circle on the top.
Keith: That’s right.
Bot: I would rather have his cut all his hair.
Keith: And you decide from there.
Bot: Tattoo the pattern on a stylish position.
Keith: On a stylish position.
Kydd: You need to discuss with the customer.
Bot: It’s better than anyhow choosing a position.
Kydd: Are you losing hair?
Bot: Not really. I don’t have thick hair.
Kydd: But it looks okay.
Bot: It has been like this. I cut short hair in the past. It is okay for me.
Kydd: I want short hair as well. It is troublesome. I know there is a recording and I am combing my hair.
Keith: It is an advantage for men to cut short hair.
Bot: Wash and dry your hair within three minutes.
Keith: That’s right. That’s the point.
Kydd: Hair is another trouble. You attend some occasions and you wonder if your hair is messy.
Keith: Yup.
Kydd: I prefer to be good-looking.
Bot: It is okay to keep long hair. I had it before this. If you are attending some polite events, you tie it up and you look good.
Kydd: Because you have tied it up.
Bot: If your hair is not too long, you have to comb it. It becomes troublesome. That’s quite troublesome.
Bot: Speaking of which, for outsiders like us, I saw the Thai tattoo artists’ work. They tattooed religious figures with long sticks. They pierced it, as if they didn’t need to draw it. They pierced it and created a pattern. How was the colour drawn?
Kydd: It is the same theory as tattoo machine, but they have longer sticks. They put in some strength and it is more painful. It could be stronger and weaker. Frankly speaking, Thai-style tattoo hurts their skin, you touch the skin and it is as if embossing. I am not familiar with their process, but I know this is how they work. They can’t control their strength consistently.
Bot: How is the colour inserted? Where is it inserted?
Kydd: They have the colour ink on the needle line. They pierce it and the colour is spread. Which is similar to a tattoo machine.
Bot: That is…
Kydd: For tattoo machine, you may set a consistent strength. It spreads in an even manner; the thick and thin lines don’t mix up. But it is more painful.
Bot: You have your pen, right?
Kydd: Yes, I have a pen.
Bot: The piercing strength doesn’t come from your hand.
Kydd: Not from my hand. I have to control it though. Not that I keep piercing forward. I need to control it. But the pace and strength of the needle has been set.
Bot: Okay.
Keith: Do the Thai artists use long sticks?
Kydd: It is long.
Keith: Since it is long, the artist might think it is not strong enough. So he pushes harder.
Kydd: That’s surely the case. Your hand feels tired, if you lift it up for several minutes. Unless they are very experienced artists. I saw some of their pretty works.
Bot: Some works are very tidy.
Keith: I see.
Kydd: Some Thai artists use tattoo machine though. But most of them still use the long-stick method. Good question.
Bot: Okay.
Kydd: A good interaction.
Keith: Which are the places where tattoo art is popular?
Kydd: The United States. And Japan – you know their Yakuzi style.
Bot: Uh-huh.
Kydd: Surely, among the Americans; many of their artists have it. For now, I think it is getting more popular in South Korea. They are becoming more fashionable.
Keith: Yup. Quite modern.
Kydd: I have also found out that a new culture has emerged. Which is smaller patterns, such as tiny stars. Those are the Koreans. You’ll see a lot of things when you search “Korea tattoo” online.
Bot: Okay.
Kydd: It is quite…
Keith: Delicate.
Kydd: If you don’t want a big pattern, you may get a smaller one. You are as if…
Bot: My upbringing gives me such idea. I like tattoo art. If I get it tattooed, and it is as if… In the past, we used to smoke. But we kept our family members in the dark, for we cared for their strong opinions. When I was studying primary school, I uttered profanities, but I didn’t want my family to know that. Which is a style in our family.
Kydd: That’s good though. I respect it.
Bot: My elder sister taught me this. So we have to behave. I was surely naughty.
Keith: Speaking of family members, did someone get themselves tattooed and quarrelled with family, partner or girlfriend?
Bot: Turning hostile.
Keith: That’s right.
Kydd: They didn’t tell me that. They might have some quarrel but they didn’t tell me. Some of the friends or customers…
Keith: They related the story.
Kydd: A customer get tattooed and cover it with his clothes.
Keith: That’s suffering.
Kydd: A guy covers it up for one year and is still not exposed. Some are accidents though. You swim and your family members saw it. You can’t help. Turning hostile is impossible. You get tattooed and you can’t do anything to reverse it.
Bot: That’s right. There is this technology to cleanse tattoo but it is expensive. Right?
Kydd: It depends on the pattern. Yes, it is expensive. It depends on the size. A cosmetician friend helps cleanse tattoos. It takes a machine to cleanse it. I saw the process and it looks good. It recovers.
Keith: Really?
Kydd: Of course, it is not that you can recover 100 per cent. There is a scar.
Keith: How much is left? 20 to 30 per cent?
Kydd: About 20 per cent, if compared to your original skin.
Bot: The skin tone is slightly different.
Kydd: The pattern becomes much lighter but left with some scar. You observe closely and you’ll see the scar. It goes back to the cleansing technique. For some who work as cosmeticians, they are good in cleansing. It is as if a cosmetic surgery. I think it works.
Keith: I am very curious though. Say someone get a snake pattern tattooed on his arm. If others poked fun at him and he found it to be uninteresting. He might to cleanse it and he regrets the whole thing. Someone might feel it that way.
Kydd: He gets the tattoo and regrets it.
Keith: He regrets it and cleanses it. At the end of the day, what the point is?
Kydd: Most customers looked for me for a modification. Or they want me to cover it.
Keith: What is it to be covered up?
Kydd: I have to look at the pattern and come up with an idea.
Bot: Someone might get a “I love Leon Lai”. But she preferred Andy Lau later on.
Kydd: Cross it with a red line.
Bot: That’s real trouble. Draw some lines to cover it.
Keith: Add four legs for the snake and it becomes a lizard.
Kydd: That works too. A popular method several years ago was that the artist coloured your arm black.
Bot: Uh-huh.
Kydd: So that they spare the trouble. It was popular. Until now, it becomes a black work tattoo style. It turns black suddenly. Or several portions of black colour. It becomes a trend.
Bot: If I get my arm all black, can I get some white spots?
Kydd: It is more difficult, unless you keep an empty space. If you have a black tattoo, it is more difficult to add another colour. Unless you pierce it for many times. You recover and visit the tattoo artist to repeat the process again and again. Work on it for seven to eight times, you might be able to add some colours.
Bot: The basic thing is similar to drawing.
Kydd: It is similar. You must pay attention to your skin. Your skin surface might be injured. Or the customer feels pain and he might move a bit.
Bot: Uh-huh.
Kydd: Or the tattoo artist does not perform well today. His hand might be trembling, or you might encounter a blackout. These are among the scenarios.
Bot: It is very troublesome, when you encounter a blackout halfway through a tattoo process.
Kydd: That really is troublesome. I worry a lot about it.
Keith: Standby. You need a standby generator.
Kydd: I will need that soon. I encountered a blackout, but luckily, I was working on supplementary colouration. It took place in my studio. They had a notice but I did not read it. The notice told you the exact timing of the blackout. I felt embarrassed, because my friend came over from Singapore. I couldn’t help and I apologised to him. Yeah, I can think about a standy generator.
Keith: Some of your business comes from Singapore.
Kydd: That is a KL friend who works in Singapore.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Kydd: Some of them are…
Keith: Referrals.
Kydd: They are referrals.
Bot: Their reputation is crucial.
Keith: That’s right.
Bot: Some of the artists are weird. They live in hidden places or flats, but they attracted many customers.
Keith: Are there some famous masters? Their customers travel thousands of miles to look for them.
Kydd: I think it is because I am friendly. My friends wrote me comments and they said I am friendly. They didn’t comment on my artwork though. Or they said my studio is clean and comfortable. These are comments for me. You can see them online. That’s how they come over.
Bot: That’s how you run business.
Kydd: Most of the old tattoo studios are dimmed. I wonder if…
Keith: Some films showed that too.
Bot: Yup.
Kydd: Some of them have stylish lighting. The moment you walk into the place, you feel afraid.
Keith: That is for sure, given such an environment.
Kydd: Which was why I told myself not to set up such a dimmed studio. Your customers will be terrified. I want a bright place. I followed the ambience since then. I believe that my customers like my place a lot.
Keith: Is that your studio name?
Kydd: Replayink.
Keith: Replayink.
Kydd: I can send you my Instagram account.
Keith: Sure.
Kydd: You can search it online. Replayink.
Keith: Okay.
Bot: I asked Kydd to showcase his photos to elaborate more about his work. There are some of his works but they are not comprehensive. You might visit his Facebook page…
Kydd: Or Instagram.
Bot: You might find more of his works.
Kydd: You might as well share the link.
Bot: Sure. When we are sharing the video.
Keith: Yup.
Kydd: It stretches out like this.
Bot: You all may follow him. Let me introduce again, this is Kydd. Search for his link. They can search it online.
Kydd: Yup. Sure.
Bot: It is about time now. Please let me ask the last question. This is not the most weird question though. Many have their hidden parts tattooed.
Kydd: Good question.
Bot: Some Caucasians have their buttocks exposed – but it is not on the exit.
Kydd: The anus.
Bot: That (certain) place.
Kydd: Sorry.
Bot: How to handle such case?
Kydd: Good question. I almost forgot this. I met this guy from China when I was working in Sungei Wang. He wants his little brother to be tattooed.
Bot: Okay.
Kydd: But he had the tattoo already. He wanted me to work on the colouration.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Kydd: My senior urged me to help him. He said I could charge a higher fee. I didn’t have much money back then. For private part, we charged higher. I went to help him. It was embarrassing. He had the pattern of Ferrari.
Bot: Uh-huh.
Kydd: I was adding the colouration. I took the challenge and kept calm.
Bot: How was it? Do you pull it?
Kydd: Used a clip and stretched it. Fortunately, he didn’t bother me.
Bot: It was challenging when it was clipped.
Kydd: He had a ring as well. His entire… So I wondered what type of person he was. From his appearance, you couldn’t tell he was such person. He looked gentle and polite.
Bot: He had such thoughts and preference.
Keith: Different people have different preference.
Kydd: That was an experience. Another Caucasian was also interesting. He wanted a mum word written in the middle of a heart. He wanted to show off his tattoo on his butt. He had such idea.
Keith: That’s something.
Kydd: It was the first time for me and I was glad that he had such thought. I helped him. It becomes usual now. Some friends in the past thought mine was an exciting job because some customers stripped in front of me. In earlier stage, I felt anxiously excited – not in a pervert way though. I was excited that I might see something. I didn’t dare to do anything, just in case they sue me. Seven or eight years later, I had a customer who wanted her flank tattooed. She entered the room and stripped immediately. I told her to calm down. I felt embarrassed. That was a pretty lady in her thirties.
Bot: Okay.
Kydd: It was actually nothing. Doctors handle such situation as well. That was the point in time when I discovered I have to be as professional as doctors do, so that my customers respect me. They feel a sense of security and I gave them confidence. Some of them might worry if they strip in front of others. I need to offer them a professional service. Frankly speaking, I have no feeling now. You have a different feeling when you feel the pervert thing. But definitely not the time when you are working.
Keith: In most cases, you don’t have such feeling when working. Such as those photography sessions.
Kydd: That’s right.
Keith: I have photographer friends who work on something like this. They have no feeling.
Bot: They are thinking about something more complicated and thus forgot about that thing.
Kydd: I thought of an advertisement in Singapore. An uncle massages models. He complains about his job: “Hey, take a look at me. Take a look.” That ads was great. “Take a look.”
Bot: He kept complaining about the pretty girls. He did his massage work with an impatient attitude.
Kydd: You will have such thought, let me tell you.
Bot: For this episode, we don’t have live comments.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Let us try it this way. We hope our viewers still watch it when we share the video.
Keith: Share your comments and thoughts.
Bot: Your thoughts and suggestions on how we can improve our programme. Give us comments so that we can follow up. It is longer than 30 minutes now.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Thanks a lot to our friend Kydd for coming over to our programme.
Kydd: I want to come over and have a reunion with old friend. It has been a while. Thank you. Master Bot influenced me a lot. I feel heartening.
Bot: Yup.
Kydd: I was setting up a workshop in his studio. He gave me a space and that was quite some time. You influenced me a lot in terms of creativity.
Bot: I discovered your talent in painting. You are much gifted in that field.
Kydd: Thank you.
Bot: I didn’t want to keep you…
Keith: He has artistic attainment.
Kydd: I helped him on recording work.
Bot: I didn’t want to keep you, because it wasted your talent. When you were working on story boards, you drew and completed it in one take. You could even handle time lapse.
Kydd: Uh-huh.
Bot: Wow. That was without a mistake. I couldn’t do that. I am glad that I let you go and it was – and still is – a right decision. You at least get back to your painting field, instead of exploring something that didn’t suit you.
Keith: You are placed in a right position.
Bot: He could work on recording. But that was for his pastime. This is for fun. Not for fun.
Kydd: For my work.
Bot: For your work. Which is different from having fun. Thankfully, you understood something like this.
Kydd: That was seven or eight years ago.
Bot: Time flies.
Keith: We have been talking about this all the time.
Kydd: Sharing the video is…
Keith: An experience.
Bot: No choice now.
Kydd: It is also sharing love. May I say that. We can in the future refer back to today’s video recording.
Bot: We keep the record for people who care for us. Our good friends.
Kydd: Yup.
Bot: We have no time to meet up for tea sessions. But they can watch our live show and know what we are doing lately.
Keith: That’s true. I follow Hong Kong talk shows and I felt like the hosts are my friends, when I follow them every week.
Bot: That’s important. If you want to be a guest of our Random Talk Programme, feel free to give us comments. We welcome different friends, we want to learn more about new things. When we don’t have a guest, we’ll talk about our own topics. Thanks for watching. Share our video link if you find it to be a suitable show.
Keith: Yup.
Kydd: Thank you.
Bot: Thank you.
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