Addis Tatoo Shops Thrive as Old Meets New

26 August, 2009

Fortune - Welina Sissay, cannot remember when she got the scars but she remembers how. When she was a baby someone in her family took a knife to her back and made three, five-centimetre cuts down the middle. A cultural tradition for many Ethiopian girls in the countryside, she did not have a choice at the time. One year ago she decided to have her skin broken for another reason.

"I felt some pain from the needle but I really wanted the tattoo," She said about the dolphin with the heart that now covers the scars on her back.

"I saw another person with one and I loved the way it looked. I knew it would make me more attractive than before," she said.

Apparently she is not alone. Three years ago there were no visible tattoo shops in Addis Abeba, now there are eight and Africa Avenue (Bole Road) display posters of women in underwear with strategically placed tattoos.

A little over three years ago, Belete Debela's interest in tattoos was stoked when his cousin began talking about them after a visit to Sweden. When he could not find any other tattoo shops in Addis, he taught himself tattooing using videos and orange skins. Now at his shop, Tatoo House, he does approximately two tattoos a day, charging between 400 and 1,500 Br. Lately, he has had so much work he has been able to afford an expensive ear piercing machine from the US to start another business.

Around the same time Abel Masho came to Addis to visit Ethiopia for the Millennium. He had left as a child, 27 years earlier when his family fled the Derg and was returning to reacquaint himself with his culture. He figured he would brush up on his Amharic and return to America in six months. An artist by training, he enjoyed making tattoos in the US so he did a few for people he met here. After a few months, strangers who heard about him through friends were inviting him to their homes to create tattoos. It was at this point that Abel realized there was a demand with no supply. He put up flyers around town, rented a small space in Hayahulet and placed a sign which said "American Tattoo," on the sidewalk in front of the building. Sixteen months later, he had so many customers he was able to open a second shop at the Jambo building near Bole Medhanialem.

The tattoo shops became so popular so quickly that both Abel and Belete had to scramble to import equipment from the US.

"All the ink, the machine even the latex gloves and numbing spray (for needle phobic clients) had to be imported, by the time I was done with everything I spent around 35,000 Br," Abel said. "When I purchased a Chinese machine it could only do small designs so I had to import another machine and ink from the US". Needless to say, the recent foreign exchange crisis has affected his business. For example, he says latex gloves, which he uses for every client, have gone up 200pc in just the last two months.

Now Abel says people are offering him "a lot of money" for training because they think they are just going to open a shop and it is going to be lucrative.

Sami, who also started a tattoo shop around two years ago after coming here from Italy, sees the same trend. "A lot of people are trying to get into the business now because of money," he said.

A look around the Bole area seems to bear this out. Several other tattoo shops visited by Fortune seemed to be adding tattooing services to already established businesses such as beauty spas and, surprisingly, a stationery store.

Despite the sudden investment and subsequent thriving business all three shop owners realized that doing tattoos in Ethiopia was a much different experience than in the other parts of the world.

"At first people thought tattoos were a sin but now people here are beginning to see that they can be a celebration of our culture," Belete said.

"Many people here did not really understand tattoos. They thought they were going to wear off eventually. I also had to import numbing spray for all the people that were afraid of needles," Abel said laughing.

But there is a more significant note to the difference.

All three owners agree that the majority of local people appear to be taking their tattoos very seriously.

"People from outside Ethiopia tend to get traditional tattoos such as the Ethiopian Shield, but people from Ethiopia get religious and family themes. They are getting very sophisticated here and they are going to get something they are not going to forget," Sami said.

Abel and Belete agree that religious symbols and pictures are popular, especially among Ethiopian men.

However, Abel sees many female customers who believe he can help them become more attractive. Sometimes all he is doing is designing a creative picture on an already beautiful woman. However, with increasing regularity he is seeing people who are using the tattoo to change a mark from a previous disease, injury or cultural ritual.

Abel's eyes started to tear as he recalled helping people with skin disease and scars heal though the drawings on their skin.

"One lady who came in here tolf to me she never thought she could get rid of this scar in her lifetime but she was ecstatic when I turned the scar into a rose," he said.

But not everyone who wants their skin changed has a disorder. Some are coming to change their traditional tattoos. Modern tattooing might be taking off now but cultural tattooing in the countryside dates centuries.

In some regions such as Gojjam it is common to see the chins of women marked with green lines, arms with crosses and hands with small green drawings. Like Welina, Abikeyelech Simachew, does not remember when she got her traditional tattoo. The green markings on her face are a sign of beauty for her and she has no plans to get rid of them.

"It is part of me," she says. However she admits she knows friends of hers who feels differently. Abel notes that, women are coming to his shop with increasing frequency to cover up or put a modern spin on a customary symbol once considered a mark of splendour.

Belete proudly displays a picture of flowers he made from the green tattooed markings a woman had on her fingers since childhood. Looking at the picture one would think he had created green stems himself instead of using the markings made by needles in the countryside many years ago.

One year later Welina is back in Abel's waiting room. She wants to get a rose on her stomach to add color to her abdomen. Her little sister, who has the same scars, is in the waiting room with her.

By ERIC EPP SPECIAL TO FORTUNE