1984 Tattoo Studio- Hanoi, Vietnam
Hanoi boasts a wide selection of cutting edge tattoo artists. The tattoo scene is definitely progressing and showing signs of becoming mainstream. During my free time, I scoured the internet for reviews, spoke to long term volunteers about their tattoo experiences, and engaged with various locals about where they had their tattoo work done. After several weeks of deliberation, I decided to visit 1984 Tattoo Studio in the Old Quarter. The web site showed a funky five story multi-tiered shop with a bar on the top floor. I arrived for my consultation and was ushered up to the second floor where I met with a tattoo artist, Det, and an English interpreter. I was immediately impressed by the cleanliness and service orientated attitude they exhibited. In addition, they listened intently to my ideas, and were quick to add their own opinions where appropriate. Based on the positive vibes and quality of work I viewed on persons in the shop and associated images, we agreed upon two tattoos that would take approximately 7 hours for 8.5 million VND. Do the math and you know how cheap that is!!!
Leading up to my tattoo appointment, I sent an email to 1984 Tattoo Studio front desk staff requesting to switch my appointment from Sunday to Saturday. Within several hours, an email was waiting in my inbox letting me know that it was not an issue.
I arrived via taxi on my appointment day, and Det was sitting outside eating Pho with several other tattoo artists. It was a great way to start the session, seeing my artist chilling in a chair and projecting a warm gracious welcome as I exited the taxi cab. Det doesn’t speak English, so the front desk representative told me to walk up to the third floor at which point a switcharoo occurred; another tattoo artist was waiting for me. This was a new one for me?! I was between a rock and a hard place and thought to myself, “Asia never stops providing intricate challenges to my normative expectations and routines”. I would never have thought another tattoo artist would be standing at the table waiting for me. Lesson learned AGAIN!
Come to find out when I had switched my appointment from Sunday to Saturday my original tattoo artist already had a booking, but they inconveniently left that part out of the email. Instead of Det, I got Mike, who was named Mike after you guessed it Mike Wasowski from the children’s movie-Monsters Inc. He told me that he selected the name in primary school when an English teacher requested they select English nick names: can’t make this shit up. It’s Asia anything can and will happen. The best thing about being tattooed in a foreign country is the background music. In this case, it was bumping Vietnamese rap; the hard driving lyrics and tones engaged my brain on another level and signaled a deep inner connection between mind and body. I was elevated to another plane of existentialism which felt like a mix of euphoria and peace while the needle rattled away at different points of my upper body. As if the universe was directing my path, my young tattoo artist was a damn tattoo savant and produced a one-of-a-kind unique intricate tattoo. Through all the interesting challenges, I couldn’t be happier with my new Garunda bird and the word “Giao Vien” which means teacher in Vietnamese.
