Tattoo Artist

This film (drama)Also known asThe Tattooist，is aNew Zealand, SingaporeProducerwomen sex，At2007Released in year 。The dialogue language isEnglish，Current Douban rating5.7(For reference only)。

A man descends a dark staircase and finds a child curled up in a shadowy corner. He grabs the boy's hand and rolls up his sleeve—there is a tattoo: a venomous snake and a hexagram. “Oh my God, this is a symbol of the devil,” the boy's father says in anguish, then he pulls out a knife, praying as he slices away the boy's skin. A grown man awakens from the dream; the scar from that time still lingers on his left hand, but other parts are already covered in tattoos. He picks up a toolbox and walks out of the room. A mansion, Chinese people, at the door of the room stands an incense burner filled with incense sticks, and on the bed lies a child who seems to be at death's door. “He needs a doctor,” the man says. “He needs a tattoo,” the Chinese man hands him an envelope full of money. The man sits down, takes out his tools, and starts tattooing on the boy's chest; afterward, the boy seems to feel better. At a tattoo exhibition, the man sees a woman who attracts him and follows her into a Samoan tattoo tent, where the people are tattooing using the oldest methods, with no electric needles, only a small knife similar to a chisel. With each strike, blood flows out, ink seeps in, leaving an indelible mark. The man asks, “Does tattooing really have healing powers?” One of the leaders stands up and asks, “Do you really believe that?” The man exits the tent and sees an old but exquisite tattoo knife displayed outside; taking advantage of the distraction, he steals it. The man leaves the exhibition, and in the rain, the Chinese man he met recently rushes at him, “Your tattoo failed! My child! My child!” In their struggle, the man's belongings fall to the ground, and while he bends to pick them up, the tattoo knife he just stole pricks his palm. Dream, shadow, father, the knife that grazed his hand; the man awakens once more, then goes to the sink to wash his face and hands. Blood drips down from his mouth, swirling in the water, suddenly giving rise to strange changes. He focuses on it, but it vanishes. The man lifts his head and sees a shadow in the mirror; when he turns to look, there is nothing there. He then goes to New Zealand, Auckland, where he learns to tattoo. He easily finds a job in his original teacher's shop. That day he tattoos four people: a man tattooing for love, a pair of Asian siblings, the brother not yet 18, and an old man who is almost fully tattooed. He then sets out to find the girl who once attracted him. On the way, a child tells him, “There’s something following you. Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it’s not there.” Although she is Samoan, the girl works in a church. The man accompanies her to a strange Samoan family; in the dilapidated house lives an irritable middle-aged man with striking Samoan traditional tattoos. The girl tells him that this family has lived in shame because their child went out once and never came back. She also takes him to a Samoan gathering, where he meets the girl’s uncle—the tattoo knife that pricked him actually belonged to him, although the man did not know it at the time. He does notice a small room behind the house and the menacing door. When he leaves, the girl gives him a red flower. Back home, the man sees a barely visible reflection in the mirror. Then he hears the sound of running water in the bathroom. He walks over and opens the door… The Asian girl he tattooed is taking a shower. The girl invites the man to her brother's birthday party, and he goes, but after exchanging only a few words, they part on bad terms. The man sits in the car, but cannot start the engine. He then hears the sound of tattooing, and suddenly sees ink dripping from his wound. At that moment, the Asian boy who was thrown into the pool suddenly sinks underwater, blood and ink surge from nowhere, turning the pool black. Looking again at the wound on his hand, he sees it has stopped bleeding, so he drives away, utterly unaware that the boy has died. The boy is lifted up by the crowd, black tattoos spreading like veins from his chest all over his body, continuously seeping ink. That night, the man spends a pleasant evening with the girl and tattoos a red flower on her back. Meanwhile, the first client he tattooed is found dead in the bathroom, covered in black vein-like tattoos. The next day, when the man returns home, he finds the sister of the Asian siblings waiting for him, angrily questioning what the tattoo really is. At that moment, he receives a call from another client; sensing something is wrong, the man leaves to find the client. Left home, the Asian girl lifts her shirt in front of the mirror and sees something she does not want to see. The man arrives at the client’s house and discovers that the client is also covered in ink and soon dies in fear. He rushes home, where the Asian girl is in the bathroom, trying to scrub off the tattoo on her abdomen with a steel wool ball, but the man's arrival causes the tattoo to grow rapidly. In the hospital, ink constantly seeps from the girl, and her life gradually fades away. In the mirror, the man sees a black figure, as if composed of ink, attached to the girl, tattooing her. As this figure moves, the girl’s skin continues to裂开, spilling more ink. Drip, the heart starts to beat irregularly, and everything the doctor does only prolongs the girl’s suffering. Eventually, her face and eyeball裂开, blood splattering everywhere. The man rushes out of the hospital because he had also tattooed someone—his beloved girl. But the tattoos on the girl have begun to spread as well. The man finds the child who first saw what was behind him, asking him to clarify what it represents. They sit in the car, speeding down the highway, the volume of the car’s sound system cranked up. Finally, the boy suddenly erupts, that evil spirit possessing him. It wants revenge, revenge on the one who shamed him.