Ting Ting is creating community

This is Ting Ting’s story, in her own words:

I grew up in China in a city called Jinhua. It's a small city in Zhejiang province. 

I was doing art for fun at first then in high school, I decided I wanted to work as an artist. In my spare time, I was always painting and drawing and I attended online courses for digital painting. I told my parents if I'm not going to do art, I can do nothing else. So they let me do it.

My father is okay with me doing art and design because it's what he liked when he was young. My mother is a little bit concerned because art is not really stable. Traditional parents want their kids to have a stable job in the future but I think they both agree that I am good at doing art. I'm pretty happy they're supporting me. They sent me to Canada to go to university and I went to OCAD for illustration. 

When I was getting into illustration, I started to realize there’s a style you need to have and there’s a theme you need to keep working on.

It was kind of a struggle to find a topic when I needed to do my portfolio or for my fourth year thesis. I think that was the year I found what I really wanted to do. My style is based on my imaginations and daydreaming. I also love to work with harsh line works and a more colorful palette.

‍At first I was doing a more traditional Chinese portrait style, but I'm also good at illustration so I was incorporating that style into my perspective. 

I started tattooing in 2019. It was time when I was going to get a tattoo from one of my favorite artists at Golden Iron Tattoo Studio. I had a full time job but I was thinking, “Why don't I practice tattooing because I have spare time after work?” So I just asked them, would they accept an apprentice? And they said yes. That community was very welcoming to me.

My favorite color is blue. When I was looking at all the references, I realized it was a symbol of Chinese traditional arts. I started to explore it. At first I was doing a more traditional Chinese portrait style, but I'm also good at illustration so I was incorporating that style into my perspective. The majority of my clients now are Asian.

It's more acceptable now to get a tattoo in Canada and all over the world. There's a lot of Korean artists trying to bring their own styles to the industry, so there's more variety. They can be more symbolic or have a specific meaning for your family members. So, for more traditional families, when they're seeing their kids getting tattooed but it’s art relating to their family, it's becoming more acceptable. 

We want to create a community that stands for our culture and that has more meaningful surroundings. 

We’re hopefully opening our own studio soon. I’m still looking for a good business location right now, closer to a subway station. We want to create a community that stands for our culture and that has more meaningful surroundings. We also want to host events like workshops for tattooing or for other mediums—it could be anything. One event I really want to have is still life painting, inviting artists to come and do still life.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly in the end. First we have to make sure the tattooing is good. Then we can develop more in the future.

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Artist Stories spotlights tattoo artists of all styles and backgrounds and shares their unique journey with the community.