BEHIND CLOTHED

WITHOUT SHAME

Matt Lin has been a tattoo artist for just over a year, and encourages his clients to go big and bold.

Behind Clothed Doors

Despite his parents’ objections, tattoo artist Matt Lin continues to leave a permanent mark on others. by ADA SUN

Tattoo artist Matt Lin regularly gets asked the same question: How can I hide this tattoo from my parents?

“First, you need to choose a suitable location for your tattoo to be hidden on your body,” says Lin. “And then when your parents finally find out you got a tattoo after a year or two, you can act like they did not even notice it for such a long time so it should not be a big deal at all.” He should know: he has nine hidden tattoos himself.

Lin has been a tattoo artist for just over a year, but when it came to telling his parents his chosen field of work, Lin hid the news until this past Christmas. As the son of immigrant parents (Lin was born in China and raised in Canada), it wasn’t easy news to share. Though his parents have been sending him to art courses since he was four years old, “tattoo artist” isn’t the same as “artist” to the older Chinese generation. “My mother called me a few weeks ago,” says Lin. “She was concerned for me about my career and thinks it’s not a secure job.”

Lin started his career as a tattoo artist after graduating with a masters in business management from Queen’s University in August 2020. A friend had given him an old tattoo machine five years before that, but he hadn’t done much with it—until he designed his first official tattoo on his own body. Soon friends began asking him to tattoo them, too.

Because Lin doesn’t have any visible tattoos, he doesn’t look like any typical tattoo artist. But it isn’t because he doesn’t want his parents to know what he does for a living. “When I get tattoos for myself, I would like them to be unique,” he says. “For example, one of my first tattoos