Why artist’s tattoos of Hong Kong and Chinese culture hit home for Asians overseas
- London-based Georgina Leung’s tattoo profile includes everything from White rabbit candy and Hong Kong-style French toast to Studio Ghibli imagery
- The nostalgic, often lighthearted tattoos helped propel her career at a time when many Asians overseas were looking for a sense of comfort
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people found themselves taking up new hobbies, such as baking bread or gardening. Georgina Leung was no different – except her hobby involved puncturing herself with needle and ink.
“My boyfriend would come into the flat and find me sat there with my leg out, stabbing myself in front of the TV,” Leung says. “It became this ritual of what I would do, where I’m like, ‘Oh OK, it’s Sunday again, let me give myself a tattoo.’”
At the time, in 2020, Leung had just been furloughed from her job at a jewellery design company. Finding herself with extra time on her hands, she instinctively bought a stick-and-poke DIY tattoo kit online and began inking herself.
“A needle, ink and my skin,” she had thought. “What could go wrong?”
The London-based artist had long had a natural affinity for the medium. She got her first tattoo, of a cherry blossom flower, at the age of 17 after stealing her sister’s ID and heading to a tattoo shop in Dublin, a few hours from where she grew up in Northern Ireland.
