Brocaded Bodies and Needled Brushes: Decorative Tattooing Practices in Premodern China

Speaker

Raffaela Rettinger, MA (JMU Würzburg)

Date and Time

December 3, 2026, 4.15 pm - 5.45 pm

Venue

Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zurich, Room RAA-E-29

Abstract

Since its earliest records, tattooing in premodern China has been categorized as foreign, immoral and used to mark criminals, servants, and soldiers. However, despite this persisting stigma against inked skin, a voluntary, decorative tattooing subculture began to emerge during the Tang (618–907) and came into full bloom during the Song dynasty (960–1279). 

Tracing the practice of decorative tattooing as a predominantly urban and military phenomenon, this paper focuses on how different sources, such as dynastic histories and brush-notes collections, employ tattoos as storytelling devices. Beyond such representation, it also analyzes how decorative tattooing as a subcultural phenomenon developed and became professionalized. We read, for example, of a man who had his whole body tattooed with the poems of Bai Juyi 白居易 (772–846), or even of a group known as the “Brocaded Body Society” (jinti she 錦體社), which performed during grand celebrations in the capital of the Southern Song (1127–1279). Surrounding this subculture, a market of tattoo specialists formed that could offer diverse designs of varying qualities, sizes, and prices. Even high-ranking officials are recorded as frequenting these masters to have their bodies tattooed.

The case of an urban decorative tattooing subculture calls into question the prevailing stereotype of the “tattooed ruffians of the market streets” and lays bare a far more complex socio-political developments of everyday life. By focusing on the interplay between alienation and appropriation, this paper shines a light on those men, who used ink as medium and their bodies as canvas to connect with or criticize other members of society and thus find their place in Song urban culture.

Organization: Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies - Chinese Studies