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by Wi llia m
12 TUFTS OBSERVER NOVEMBER 21, 2022
Zh ua ng
As a child in China, I was pretty much only exposed to tattoos through movies. More specifically, action movies about classic gangster-police rivalries. At the end of every one, there was almost certainly a righteous-looking, severely injured policeman (the protagonist) standing over a mob boss (the antagonist) dying of blood loss. Red liquid would gush from the side of his mouth onto his tattoo-covered neck, usually of a colorful dragon or feline, mouth open, sharp teeth showing. They’d have one last solemn dialogue on evil’s inability to defeat the righteous before the mob boss turned his head limply, and the policeman was picked up by the ambulance, which always arrived dramatically late. There he reunited, oxygen mask on, with his beautiful, sobbing bride. Only then did the credits roll, and as the lights turned on, the whole cinema filled with applause. Here’s the catch, though, I was most definitely too young to be let into the theater for these R-rated movies. However, since Chinese cinemas weren’t as strict as the US about age regulations, these violent blockbusters made up the majority of movies I watched. By the time my mom promptly tucked me into bed