Kevin has four tattoos that are visible. Each is done in a different style as a form of advertising. One picture is of his wife and she looks just like the photo. There are two dragons on either arm and a shark. He comes from a traditional "soldiers village" in the country and "wanted a tattoo from an early age. I held that attitude and when I left the army I got one. It's my body and I didn't worry about what my parents thought."
"Traditional society still does not accept tattoos," he says. "If you want to be a policeman they will not accept you and in the army they will make life tough for you." So in the past, Kevin says, 80 percent of tattooists had spent time in jail, but now they are as likely to come from art college or some similar background. There is money to be made and for the great majority tattoos are no longer the mark of the outsider, just an extreme form of body ornamentation.
But Damau says tattoos are about more than just looking good. He has a formula: "Need -- hurt -- remember." If you need a tattoo, then it is going to hurt. And if it hurts, then you will remember why you got it in the first place.
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