Luminescent tattoos or UV tattoos have become the “fashion” among young Hanoians. It differs from normal tattoo only in that the normal ink is replaced by imported luminescent or UV ink.

An UV tattoo under normal light.

The people with UV tattoos like going to discotheques and clubs to show off their tattoos because under ultraviolet lights, their tattoos shine.

A VNExpress reporter met several young people at a tattoo shop in Hanoi. They had paid a deposit to book the tattoos they liked.

“It is hard to find a tattoo shop like this where we can get UV tattoos, explained a girl named Lan Anh. The shop owner learned in France and his equipment is clean. Many people like tattoos, but they don’t dare use UV ink.”

A girl named Hoa acknowledged that “Tattoos are art so there is no specific price.” She pulled up her sleeve to show a new tattoo featuring a 10cm pattern and bragged, “This costs me 900,000 dong. So cheap! It would usually be 1.5 million dong!”

Linh had five tattoos already, but he wanted another UV tattoo to be “different from the others.” He admitted that he felt burning pains around the tattooed area and sometimes had to take anti-allergic medicines.

Many stylish youths have paid for UV tattoos. Dung, a hair designer, said when this kind of tattoo arrivedin Vietnam, he liked it very much. After he was tattooed, however, his skin burned and he had to go to a hospital.

Tu, a university student in Hanoi, didn’t feel pain during the first week after she got her UV tattoo, but on the eighth day itchy vesicles grew around the tattoo, which then broke out and swelled.

Tran Chi Hieu, chief of the Tattoo Club, finds that many young people come to his club for UV tattoos, but he doesn’t encourage them.

“We brought UV ink to test at the Central Dermatology and Venerology Hospital and the results showed that this ink contains some elements that can cause cancers,” Hieu explained.

Doctor Nguyen Thanh from the Central Dermatology and Venerology Hospital also recommends avoiding this ink because it can cause allergies and even cancers.

VietNamNet/VNE