My name is Tang Hao, and my grandfather is Tang Yun. Since I was a child, I have lived with my grandfather. My parents left home when I was very young and never came back. It was as if they had disappeared.
My grandfather has a skill, which is tattooing. He opened a tattoo shop in the village.
Normally, in rural areas, there are fewer people getting tattoos. My grandfather’s business should not earn much money. But strangely, his tattoo shop is not only full of customers, but also many people come from other places. Even in the village, my grandfather is very respected. Countless people come to him for tattoos. What makes me envious is that there are all kinds of beautiful women entering my grandfather’s tattoo shop. Tattooing is a technical job and also a rewarding one.
The reason why my grandfather’s tattoos are so popular is that what he tattoos is too magical. No… perhaps it’s too strange. I still remember the thing about my grandfather tattooing the village head’s beautiful wife. I often feel extremely weird.
Speaking of the village head, he should be the richest person in the entire village. His wife is also very beautiful, with delicate eyebrows, a slender waist, a curvy figure, and fair and attractive skin. But the troublesome thing is that the village head is forty years old and still has no children.
Later, the village head’s wife found my grandfather. Out of curiosity, I eavesdropped and found that they were actually discussing the matter of having a child. Then the village head’s wife followed my grandfather into the tattoo room. She would come every noon and the tattooing lasted for several days.
About a month later, the village head’s wife was actually pregnant. At that time, I was young and firmly believed that my grandfather had cuckolded the village head. I hated my grandfather to the core at that time and thought he was a stinky rogue. At his age, he even gave me a little uncle.
Of course, now that I have grown up, I understand that the village head had been trying for so many years without having a child, and my grandfather, at his age, was even less likely to be the reason. The problem should be with that tattoo. But at that time, I just couldn’t figure it out. How could just a tattoo make a person pregnant?
Later, when the village head’s wife gave birth, she died due to dystocia. However, the child survived. It was a baby girl, very pretty, just like the village head’s wife.
The village head was really affectionate towards his wife. He was so sad that he went on a hunger strike at that time. Fortunately, my grandfather went to persuade him for a few hours, and then he started eating again and survived.
Later, my grandfather took me to pay respects to the village head’s wife. When burning paper money, he kept sighing, and his expression was very guilty. He muttered, “The human body is filthy. How can the Bodhisattva be tattooed on the body? There will be retribution. I shouldn’t have tattooed the Guanyin of Sending Children for you. Alas, you loved him too much! You didn’t even care about your life just to have a child for him!”
At that time, I didn’t understand. Now when I think about it, I know that it was my grandfather who tattooed a Guanyin of Sending Children on the village head’s wife, and then she was able to get pregnant. But the Bodhisattva cannot be tattooed on a person’s body. Otherwise, there will be retribution, so the village head’s wife died.
Don’t you think this is strange? Can a tattoo have such effects? It can make a person pregnant and also cause death?
Besides this, there is another strange thing, also about tattoos.
There was a good – for – nothing hooligan in the village before, with the nickname Lanzi Qiang. Later, he went to the city and became a boss after a few years. After returning to the village, he pestered my grandfather to tattoo a Guan Gong for him.
Tattooing Guan Gong on the body means becoming a tough guy in society. It’s also very imposing and shows status. Guan Gong represents loyalty, righteousness, benevolence, and courage, which is just suitable for him who is in the underworld.
But my grandfather refused him immediately. No matter what he said, my grandfather would not tattoo him. My grandfather also said that this Lanzi Qiang didn’t have a strong enough fate and couldn’t bear the tattoo of Guan Gong. Something bad would definitely happen.
But with Lanzi Qiang’s character, how could he give up? He threatened to burn down my grandfather’s tattoo shop, dig up my family’s ancestral grave, and kidnap me. He did everything he could.
At that time, I was still young. Considering my safety, my grandfather had to compromise. But my grandfather made it clear in advance that if anything happened, he would not be responsible!
Seeing that my grandfather agreed, Lanzi Qiang didn’t care about anything else. He nodded to whatever my grandfather said. Later, my grandfather successfully tattooed a Guan Gong for him.
Sure enough, about a week later, something happened to this Lanzi Qiang.
It was said that when he was doing something dirty with a girl in the cornfield, a snake suddenly jumped out and bit him.
That snake was a grass snake, non – venomous, and often seen in rural areas. But strangely, Lanzi Qiang foamed at the mouth and his body twitched. By the time he was sent to the hospital, it was already too late. Some people said that they saw the Guan Gong on Lanzi Qiang’s back open its eyes at that time, which was extremely creepy.
When I was young, I thought Lanzi Qiang died from the snake bite. But now it seems that the tattoo was too strange. Maybe it wasn’t the snake that killed Lanzi Qiang, but the opening – eyed Guan Gong!
But it was just a tattoo. It was also too weird.
My grandfather also said at that time that if he had tattooed Guan Gong on Lanzi Qiang’s chest, perhaps nothing would have happened. But tattooing it on the back, Lanzi Qiang was bound to die. He couldn’t bear it!
A person like him deserved to die. He always wanted to dig up other people’s ancestral graves, which was very immoral. He even wanted to harm my grandson. He was courting death!
After this incident, I became more and more curious about my grandfather’s tattoos. When I was fifteen years old, my grandfather finally agreed to teach me the tattoo skills.
Five years later, I almost learned all of my grandfather’s tattoo skills. It was also at this time that I realized that my grandfather’s tattoos were not ordinary tattoos at all.
There is a kind of strange tattoo called ghost tattoo, and its effect is very weird.
Speaking of ghost tattoos, we have to start from the history of tattoos.
Tattoos were called “Ciqing” in ancient times and “Nie” in ancient classical Chinese. It means using a needle with ink to pierce the bottom layer of the skin to create some patterns or words on the skin. Embroidery various patterns on the body to show auspiciousness and worship. It has a history of two thousand years of continuation in our country.
This kind of tattoo combined with yin techniques has the effects of exorcising evil spirits, changing fortune, generating wealth, attracting love, and ensuring safety. It is commonly known as ghost tattoos.
My grandfather is the eighteenth – generation inheritor of ghost tattoos. I am the twentieth – generation, because my father is in between.
My grandfather said that now the number of people who can do ghost tattoos is very small. Maybe there is only our family left.
Unfortunately, after I learned ghost tattoos, I was not allowed by my grandfather to use them. He only let me tattoo some ordinary tattoos.
Because my grandfather said that ghost tattoos are a kind of yin technique. One can imagine how strange it is. And our ghost tattoos use the human body as a canvas, tattoo gods and ghosts, and attract yin and yang. I am not skilled enough yet. I can’t touch it now, otherwise I will lose my life.
However, on the day before this year’s Ghost Festival, my grandfather suddenly left home. Before leaving, he said to me that on the Ghost Festival, some people and ghosts would come to ask for tattoos. If a person came to ask for a tattoo, I could give it to him. He would save my life. But if it was a ghost, I must never give it a tattoo. Otherwise, the consequences would be disastrous.
There is one thing I must remember. I can only tattoo yang tattoos and must never tattoo yin tattoos!
Ghost tattoos are divided into yin and yang. Yang tattoos are orthodox, while yin tattoos are extremely evil, but their effects are much better.
The two tattooing techniques are almost the same, but the things embroidered and the tattoo pigments are completely different. It sounds a bit scary. However, yang tattoos are very orthodox and basically have no danger. The things tattooed are mostly yang things, such as gods, immortals, dragons, tigers, and the like.
Yin tattoos are different. Their pigments… are made from evil spirits and ghosts! The things tattooed are also extremely evil, but the effect is a hundred times that of yang tattoos. On the first day I started learning, my grandfather told me never to tattoo yin tattoos!
Although I have learned the skills of ghost tattoos, I have never tattooed before. Whether it is yang tattoos or yin tattoos, I have never touched them. I don’t even understand how to use ghosts as tattoo pigments.
I have never seen a ghost, and I don’t know if there are ghosts in the world. So when my grandfather told me that a ghost would come to ask me for a tattoo, I was almost dumbfounded. I thought that before the Ghost Festival even arrived, the old man was already telling ghost stories? But I could tell from my grandfather’s tone that he was very serious and not talking nonsense. So I quickly asked him what was going on and where he was going.
But my grandfather didn’t explain much to me. He just said that he was going to resolve an old feud from decades ago. He told me to do as he said. After that, he left. He didn’t say where he was going or what he was going to do. But at that time, his expression was very anxious and his hands were shaking. This was the first time I saw my grandfather like this.
Because I was worried, I called my grandfather early the next morning, wanting to ask him how things were going and when he would come back. But his phone was actually turned off.
Just at this time, a person entered the tattoo shop. It was a pregnant woman with a big belly.
The pregnant woman’s name is Chen Cuilian. We are from the same village and we all know each other. The strange thing is, what was she doing here? Did a pregnant woman still want to get a tattoo?
– End –
