The Bruise That Never Fades

Perhaps the most beautiful wound is the one you never erase. Tattoo artist Hanbi is one of the early pioneers of the genre known as bruise tattoo, an artist the tattoo scene watches closely at home and abroad. Her signature is the color of a bruise: purple, green, yellow, blue, spreading into the skin as though bleeding outward. A bruise from a collision is not something you choose, but a bruise Hanbi inks is different. This is comfort by way of engraving the wound instead of erasing it.

She once left this sentence on social media: Should a wound disappear, or is it all right to leave it? I think it is all right to leave it. Only, what shape I keep that wound in should be my own choice. What needs to be erased may not be the wound, but the way others look at it. What is it you want to erase from your own body? What shape do you want to keep your wounds in?