{"id":5812,"date":"2018-04-01T04:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T04:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-alumn-nus.pantheonsite.io\/alumnus\/?p=5812"},"modified":"2025-08-21T16:12:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:12:29","slug":"enter-the-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/2018\/04\/01\/enter-the-dragon\/","title":{"rendered":"Enter The Dragon"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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It\u2019s hard to tell that Ms Wong Pei Hsin, a full-time tattoo artist, was \u2014 for a long time \u2014 never really good at drawing. After all, a scroll through her social media account would showcase a collection of anime artworks, detailed primarily with black ink and watercolours. \u201cI only picked up drawing in Year 4 of University to cope through a difficult phase,\u201d the Psychology major lets in.<\/p>

That first step ignited a passion, which the now 27 year-old has since worked on. A growing request to have her artworks as tattoos eventually led to her current career path. Known professionally as Pei The Dragon, she is now an apprentice at local tattoo boutique Vagabond Ink Studios.<\/p>

Life as a tattoo artist is a tough draw \u2014 in more ways than one. \u201cBeing an apprentice can be one of the toughest jobs out there, especially if you are someone who values stability and a cushy income,\u201d Ms Wong explains to The Alum<\/em>NUS. While she acknowledges that the stigma attached to having tattoos, especially among the older generation, still lingers, she feels that more people are becoming accepting of body art. \u201cGrowing up in a traditional family, I was brought up to think that anyone who inks their skin is a criminal. But over time, I started to see that this isn\u2019t the case, and some of the nicest people I\u2019ve met are covered in tattoos,\u201d says Ms Wong, who has several tattoos herself, some of which have been \u201ccollected\u201d from her favourite artists from around the world when she travels.<\/p>

Having satisfied customers and excited clients also spurs Ms Wong to push forward. \u201cI\u2019ve met many interesting people from all walks of life, which makes the experience enjoyable and meaningful,\u201d she says. Ms Wong also does commissioned artworks such as murals, and recently collaborated with local DJ group \u201ceatmepoptart\u201d to design T-shirts sold at their events.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"enter-the-dragon-02v1\"<\/figure><\/div>
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Pei The Dragon, was commissioned by NUS Alumni Relations to do a Chinese New Year greeting card earlier this year<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cAt NUS, we\u2019re urged to be unafraid to speak out. This has really helped me in terms of meeting new people and potential clients. Picking up the skills to network is something I\u2019ve learnt in NUS, which has helped me progress as an artist.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tattoo artist Ms Wong Pei Hsin (Arts & Social Sciences ’15) aka Pei The Dragon on the joys of creating art on skin despite the hard work and at times, disapproval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5812"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9974,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions\/9974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alumni.nus.edu.sg\/thealumnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}