At 15, Saira Hunjan took her mother along to meet the person with whom she would do work experience in the school holidays. “You know there’s going to be a lot of swearing,” he warned the mother and daughter. So began Ms Hunjan’s career as a tattoo artist. The 32-year-old’s introduction to the industry was at Barry Louvaine’s tattoo parlour in south London. The late Louvaine, the adoptive son of a circus performer, tattooed celebrities including actors Mickey Rourke and Drew Barrymore.
15岁时，还在上学的赛拉.胡尼扬(Saira Hunjan)拉着妈妈一起，去假期打工的地方见她未来的老板。那位老板警告这对母女说：“在这儿工作会听到不少脏话的。”就这样，在伦敦南部这家名为巴里卢韦纳(Barry Louvaine)的纹身店，胡尼扬的纹身师之路开始了。胡尼扬今年32岁。当年的老板卢韦纳如今已去世，他是一名马戏团演员的养子，曾为演员米基?鲁尔克(Mickey Rourke)和德鲁?巴里摩尔(Drew Barrymore)等名人纹过身。
As a teenager Ms Hunjan was fascinated by the traditions of body adornment, particularly Indian decorative art, fabric patterns and temples. She was “forever drawing”, first on paper then on herself before moving on to the arms and legs of willing friends. After buying a tattoo magazine she knew what she wanted to do. Her parents, Indians born in Uganda and Kenya, did not try to steer her on to a more sensible path – her father, who worked in electronic repairs, used to do oil paintings and portraits in biro in his spare time. After entering her interests into a computer programme at the school career service she was offered a variety of stints at conventional offices. “I thought ‘I don’t want to do any of these’.” So she sought out Louvaine.
在少女时期，胡尼扬就非常迷恋传统的身体纹绘艺术（特别是印度装饰艺术）、纺织品图案以及寺庙。她“一天到晚都在画画”，一开始在纸上画，然后在自己身上画，接下来发展到在愿意给她画的朋友的胳膊和腿上画。在买了一本纹身杂志之后，她就知道自己想要做什么了。她的父母（分别是出生在乌干达和肯尼亚的印度人）并没有试图引导她走一条更理智的道路。她的父亲在电子维修店工作，曾在业余时间画油画和圆珠笔肖像画。在学校职业服务处，她在一个计算机项目中填入了自己的兴趣，随后接到了一些常规办公室工作的邀请。胡尼扬说：“我心想，‘这些工作我一个都不感兴趣。’”于是她找到了卢韦纳。
It wasn’t until she was 17 that she had her first tattoo. Today most of her body is covered, she says, apart from a “few bits on [her] sides”. She has stopped working on her body though rarely feels self-conscious if anyone is staring at her: “I don’t even think about it. I guess the older I get I don’t mind.”
胡尼扬17岁的时候才纹了第一个纹身。她说，现在除了“身体两侧的一些地方”，她身上大部分地方都有纹身。她已经不再做新的纹身了，但如果有人盯着她看，她很少会觉得不好意思。她说：“我甚至想都不会想这件事。我觉得年龄再大一些，我就会完全不在意了。”
While studying for a fine arts degree at Camberwell College of Art she was also apprenticed to a studio in Surrey. This involved “cleaning, making tea, earning my keep and proving that I really wanted to do this. Then alongside I learnt to tattoo.” First, practising on bananas and grapefruit, before moving on to friends and colleagues at the tattoo parlour. “Some of these people are so heavily tattooed that they’re up for you having a go.” Over time she learnt how different skin reacts to pressure, how not to overwork the skin.
在坎伯韦尔艺术学院(Camberwell College of Art)修读美术时，胡尼扬还在萨里(Surrey)的一个工作室当学徒。作为学徒，她的工作包括“做清洁、沏茶、赚取生活费，以及证明自己诚心想做这一行。此外就是学习纹身技术”。最初，她在香蕉和葡萄上练习，然后在纹身会所的朋友和同事身上练手。“他们中有些人身上有很多纹身，他们愿意让你练练手。”逐渐的，她了解了不同皮肤对针刺力度的不同反应，以及如何避免过深刺入皮肤。
The work can be emotionally intense for both tattooist and client. Tattoos can mark the start of a new life after a break-up or a memorial to a dead friend or relative. She recalls one significant job: tattooing a goddess with peacock feathers across the chest of a client who had had a double mastectomy. “My job can have a powerful impact on an individual and help in the healing process.”
纹身师和顾客可能会对纹身倾注很多感情。人们会在分手后纹身，以示打算开始新生活；在一名亲人或朋友去世后纹身，以纪念逝者。胡尼扬回忆起一次令她印象深刻的纹身：在一位做了双乳切除的客户胸部，纹一个带有孔雀羽毛的女神图案。”我的工作可能对一个人产生重大影响，并帮助他们复原。“
Today she has a two-year waiting list and can command “at least” ￡100 an hour. She has painted swallows on supermodel Kate Moss and elaborate tattoos on bankers who don’t want the designs to be below the shirt cuffs or above the collar.
如今，胡尼扬的客户预约名单都排到两年后了，每小时收费“至少”为100美元。她为超模凯特?莫斯(Kate Moss)纹过几只燕子，还为一些银行家纹过身。那些银行家不希望纹身露出袖口或领口。
But, having moved to Wales from London “to get out of all the craziness and connect with nature”, she has branched into other areas. Collaborating with leather goods maker Ettinger, she has produced wallets and purses as well as working on swimwear, tents and prints. In doing so she has joined a small but growing number of tattoo artists who are extending their creative skills beyond body adornment to luxury goods.
但“为了摆脱喧嚣、亲近大自然“，胡尼扬从伦敦搬到了威尔士，并开始向其他领域发展。通过与皮具制造商Ettinger合作，她制作了男女式钱包、游泳衣、帐篷以及版画。这样一来，她便加入了一个目前人数较少但在不断壮大的纹身师队伍，他们都在将自己的创作技能从身体纹饰拓展到奢侈品设计。
Mo Coppoletta, who owns The Family Business tattoo parlour in Clerkenwell, has worked with Liberty, the department store known for its paisley prints, on a series of fabrics, as well as designs for the Parisian fanmaker Duvelleroy and Romain Jerome, the watchmaker.
莫?卡波莱塔(Mo Coppoletta)在英国克勒肯维尔(Clerkenwell)开了一家名为“家族企业”(The Family Business)的纹身店。他已与利伯提百货商店（Liberty，它的涡纹图案十分著名）合作设计了一系列纺织品，并与巴黎制扇工坊Duvelleroy、手表制造商罗曼杰罗姆(Romain Jerome)合作设计了一些产品。
“Very few tattoo artists have the vision to expand the brand,” he says. He has recently doubled the amount of space in his parlour.
卡波莱塔说：“很少纹身艺术家有那样的远见，去拓展自己的品牌。”他最近将自己的纹身店面积扩大了一倍。
Tattoo artists should look beyond body art if they want a long-term future, says James Sandercock, editor of Total Tattoo . “There has been a massive explosion in tattooing in the last ten years. People’s attitudes have changed – the generation have grown up with it on TV, websites and blogs. From a small niche area it has grown massively to become part of a youth movement. So many people are tattooed that there are generations coming through that see it as normal. It is no longer taboo and the next generation may opt out of tattooing because it is so mainstream.”
《Total Tatto》主编詹姆斯?桑德科克(James Sandercock)说，如果希望有一个长远的未来，刺青艺术家应该将眼界拓展到身体艺术以外。“过去十年里，纹身出现了突飞猛进的发展。人们的态度发生了改变，这代人从小就在电视、网站和博客上看到纹身。纹身已经从一种小众行为，发展为青少年潮流的一部分。有如此多人纹身，成长于这种潮流中的几代人都对纹身司空见惯。纹身已不再是禁忌，下一代人可能都不会选择去纹身，因为它已经变得太主流了。”
Ms Hunjan – who used to work at The Family Business – is horrified by the ease with which people can set themselves up as tattoo artists. “Everything is available on the internet; it is quite scary?.?.?.?People won’t learn about hygiene.” In the past five years she says there has been an explosion of people entering the industry.
胡尼扬曾在“家族企业”纹身店工作过。如今当纹身师如此容易，这让胡尼扬感到震惊。“一切资料都可以从网络上获取，这很吓人……人们不会去学习有关卫生操作的知识。”她指出，过去5年中，进入这个行业的人呈爆炸式增长。
A Pew Research poll from 2010 found nearly four in 10 American “Millenials” (those in their teens and 20s) had a tattoo (and for most who do, one is not enough: about half of those with tattoos have two to five and 18 per cent have six or more). It also found that 32 per cent of people aged 30 to 45 had a tattoo.
皮尤研究(Pew Research)2010年的一项调查发现，在美国“千禧一代”（他们现在十几二十岁）中，每10个人中就有4个有纹身（他们中大部分人有不止一个纹身——大约有一半有两个到五个，有18%的人有六个甚至更多）。调查还发现，30岁至45岁人群中有32%的人有纹身。
In part this is due to reality television shows such as Miami Ink, which started in 2005 and led to the spin-offs London Ink, NY Ink and LA Ink. They helped normalise tattoos as well as launch some of its artists as stars. Kat Von D, one of the original show’s tattoo artists, became a celebrity, dating M?tley Crüe bassist Nikki Six and TV star Jesse James, and capitalised on her fame by producing several merchandising spin-offs including T-shirts and hoodies as well as a cosmetics line.
造成这种状况的部分原因在于一些电视真人秀节目，比如2005年开播的《迈阿密纹身师》(Miami Ink)。该节目后来又衍生出了《伦敦纹身师》(London Ink)、《纽约纹身师》(NY Ink)、以及《洛杉矶纹身师》(LA Ink)。这些节目推动了纹身的主流化，并让一些纹身师成了明星。《迈阿密纹身师》中的一名纹身师凯特?冯迪(Kat Von D)就已跻身名流，先后跟克鲁小丑乐团(M?tley Crüe)的贝司手尼基?西克斯(Nikki Sixx)和电视明星杰西?詹姆斯(Jesse James)约会，还利用自己的名气制作了多种周边产品，包括T恤、帽衫以及一个彩妆品牌。
Sion Smith, editor of Skin Deep, a British tattoo magazine, agrees that the market – which has proven resilient to the recession – is saturated. However, he believes the elite will always be in demand as well as less-skilled tattooists catering to legions of people who “want their husband’s name on their arm”. It is the mid-range studios on the high street that have grown in reaction to tattooing’s fads and fashions that are most vulnerable.
有人认为，虽然事实证明，纹身市场抵抗衰退的能力很强，但这一市场已经饱和。英国纹身杂志《肤深》(Skin Deep)主编赛恩?史密斯(Sion Smith)认同这一观点。但他认为，顶尖的高端纹身师始终将供不应求，水平最一般的低端纹身师亦然（总有许多“想要把丈夫的名字纹在胳膊上”的顾客，他们能够满足这些顾客的需求），开在闹市区的中端纹身店是最容易受到经济波动冲击的。受纹身潮流的影响，中端纹身店的数量一直在增长。
At the top end, the market is now international. “It’s not about walking into your nearest studio,” says Ms Hunjan. “It’s about [selecting an artist] and getting on a train or flying to a different country because this is who you want to work on you.”
在纹身领域，最高端市场如今是国际化的。胡尼扬说：“距离的远近根本不是问题，关键是（选择心仪的纹身师）,哪怕要坐火车或者搭飞机去另一个国家也没关系，因为你就是想让这个人给你纹身。”
A number of her clients have flown in from New York and across Europe. “It’s going to be on you for the rest of your life?.?.?.?It’s like getting a custom suit made.”
她有很多客户都是从纽约和欧洲各地搭飞机过来的。“纹身在你的余生将一直印在你身上……就好像一套定制的衣服。”
For Mr Coppoletta, moving into other areas is not just about increasing his career longevity, it is about sustaining job satisfaction. “You can’t be creative and inspired all the time. When you do any job you experience – like in relationships – love and passions. It’s a rollercoaster. There’s times when you are inspired and others when you can’t find the motivation. It’s easy to fall into apathy but it’s up to you to keep yourself going.”
对卡波莱塔来说，向其他领域发展不仅是为了延长职业寿命，还是为了维持对工作的满意度。“你无法始终保持创造力充沛、灵感不断。你做任何工作时，都会体验爱与激情，就像谈恋爱时一样。这种过程就像坐过山车，有时灵感勃发，有时缺乏动力。你很容易产生倦怠感，但前进的动力要靠你自己去找。”