My concept of calligraphy in body art

Many people ask me what is the purpose of my Chinese & Japanese calligraphy body art? What do I want to achieve or express through it? Some say, "oh so is this like in the movie Pillow Book by Greenway?"

Well, when I started to create calligraphy body art, I was not aware of the existance of the Pillow Book movie at all. Someone told me about it, I watched it in fragments and regretted that I did. I should have known better, that it will be nothing else but some intellectual sweat, with a depressing theme lurking in the background, like a phantom of lost yawn.

So what is the purpose of my calligraphy body art? Well, I am not sure that art needs a purpouse. It is such a journey to combine the arts of Chinese calligraphy with photography, and the beauty of woman's body. I absolutely love it. And what is more important for an artist than to enjoy the act of creation.

The essence of calligraphy is not what you write, but how it is written. The energy and living spirt of the brush strokes, the composition, etc. Those are the crucial factors of a good calligraphy. When my teacher judges a calligraphy work, he starts from the composition, white space arrangement, character structure, meaning at the very end. If the calligraphy is written by a skilled artist, one does not need to understand what is written, to be able to feel its power. In calligraphy body art I adjust the composition to the natural curves of femal'e body, I blend both natural fenomena into one piece of art.

I often use the Heart Sutra (or other sutra texts) text in my body art. Why? I love it. I love writing it, I love the message, and it calms me down when I write it. There is some unexplainable magic to it. And if someone asks me "why do you do that?", I reply:  Heart Sutra can be written for protection. It protect the sexiness from fading away.

Calligraphy line curves, and so does the female body. They talk to each other. Writing on skin is like designing a landscape. All elements must compliment one another, and stay in perfect harmony. Each person has a different character, so different writing style or calligraphy script can be chosen. Writing itself is not easy either. The skin moves, it is uneven, and the ink used is different than the traditional ink. It is all a great practice, too.

Last but not least, I can tell you that body art calligraphy could be seen as a form of therapy. Chinese calligraphy studies are proven to be one of the most effective form of meditation and prolonging life, even more effective than Tai Chi. It is curious, that every single model tells me the same thing; "I loved the the brush tip movement on the skin. It was so soothing." If the text is long, such as Heart Sutra, and it takes a considerable amount of time to write, they simply doze off.

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