Demehin Chibuzor is a young entrepreneur with a thriving business in the heart of Nigeria’s busiest city – Lagos. Though raised in a Christian home where discipline and the fear of God runs deep, he has found himself in a vocation that perhaps ‘clashes’ with the religion he professes in many regards. Today, the university graduate runs one of the biggest tattoo studios in Lagos – a job that frequently brings him in contact with all classes of people in the society. Popularly known as Shodes Tattoos in the industry, the young man has seen the good and bad sides of the job since he started seven years ago.
But away from the success he has enjoyed in the business of inking images and inscriptions on the bodies of clients, it is in servicing females with an insatiable desire to have tattoos on their boobs, bums and even private parts that has presented one of the biggest dilemmas for Chibuzor. Despite the fact that such service, when rendered, comes with a lot of financial reward, the young man told Saturday PUNCH that the hazards that come along with some requests sometimes make the job a bit tough.
“I have been in this business for seven years and I can tell you that if you are not disciplined, you could lose your mind especially with the way some female clients offer you their bodies,” the tattooist said during an encounter with one of our correspondents earlier in the week. “Though tattoos can be done on any part of the body, most female clients specially demand for such to be done on their boobs, bums and even private parts. Once they tell me what they want, I cannot turn them down because that is their choice.
“I have done several tattoos for female clients in those very private areas of the body and I can say it is no longer a strange thing to me. But I won’t deny the fact that as a man, I have been aroused after being confronted with such temptation.
“As a person, I have had several experiences of female clients inviting me over to their places for fun after I did nice tattoos for them maybe on their boobs, bums and thighs.
“But because of the passion I have for the job, I try not to be distracted. The desire to do a good job helps take my mind off such distractions. The truth is that if you are not professional about the whole thing, you could lose your respect and money in the process. The experience with female clients who want this type of service has been eye-opening indeed,” he added.
Asked if he charges a special amount to have the boobs, bums or private parts of a female client tattooed, Chibuzor said that there are a number of factors which determine the amount he charges for each work.
“It is the same price for any part of the body. Well, I don’t know for the others, but for me I don’t charge extra for doing tattoos in private areas of the body.
“The size and nature of each tattoo dictates its price. Most clients prefer you to come to their house. They feel they’ll have the comfort they need around them while doing it. These are the factors that basically determine how much we charge for each job,” he said.
Like Chibuzo r, Olaniyi Oladipupo of Shahole Tattoos is another player in the industry, who has had to fend off temptations of all kinds from female clients since going into the business about eight years ago. Apart from the growing demand for bum, boobs and private organ tattoos that he gets on a weekly basis, the free offers for sex that comes along is something he reckons could derail even a good man if not very careful. He told Saturday PUNCH that he has managed to keep his sanity only through the grace of God.
“Apart from the boobs, bums and private parts, a lot of ladies also like to have tattoos on their legs,” he began while speaking with one of our correspondents earlier in the week. “It is not easy seeing all these special parts of the body without sometimes being aroused. But even when these female clients deliberately seduce me while working on them; I try to stay calm because I know that is the only way I can get a good job done.
“Part of the ways I overcome such temptations is to gist with such ladies especially on topics that they really like. Sometimes I sing for them as well just to calm them down because many of them could be wild when they also get aroused as you are working on them. As a matter of fact, sometimes I cover those seductive parts with towel just to get my mind off it.
“As if that is not enough, some of these female clients who demand for these special tattoos on their bums, boobs and private parts, also invite me to hotels and their houses for sex but I really don’t honour such because a lady could easily claim that you want to rape her. I have had several experiences of female clients forcing themselves on me, so I am careful how I relate with them.
“Even though they can be interesting to work with, one has to be wise about it. I just take extra caution whenever I am dealing with a female client,” he said.
According to Olaniyi, who told Saturday PUNCH that he also does genital piercings, a good tattoo starts from N10, 000 upwards but that each is priced based on its design, size and skills required to execute it.
The young entrepreneur however, added that he gets at least 10 demands for such special tattoos by ladies on a weekly basis.
“The demand for boobs, bum and private parts tattoos is indeed quite high among female clients,” he said. “I have been in the business for quite some time but the way ladies are requesting for it baffles even those of us in the business,” he said.
Confirming the situation, another prominent tattoo artists in Lagos – King Walker popularly known as Shatta Ink – said that indeed temptation from female clients wanting attention in private ‘areas’ of the body is rife. According to him, he has had to learn a lot of discipline to avoid being victim of such seduction and temptation.
Walker, a Jamaican-Liberian operating around the Ajah area of Lagos, told Saturday PUNCH that as lucrative as the job appears to be, it is filled with hazards that could end even the most thriving career.
“Tattoo business is a very lucrative one but there are plenty of hazards and one of them is constant encounter with seduction and temptation from female clients,” he explained. “One of the rules of doing tattoos on female private areas is that you must not be someone who loves sex too much. As a person, once these ladies seduce me or demand for sex, I simply tell them that I am gay just to scare them. This is one of the ways I have been able to deal with this situation.
“There are sensitive parts of the body that you can touch while doing the tattoo and the female client would get aroused. So, you have to avoid touching those areas as much as possible,” he said.
Asked what he thinks is responsible for the growing demand for these special kinds of tattoos among most young women in the society, Walker reeled out a number of reasons.
“From my experience as a professional in the business, I have realised that many ladies are doing tattoos on the boobs, bums and private parts to look more attractive to men.
“Also, some are doing it to cover stretch marks and other spots on their bodies. The reasons differ but most do it just to ensure that men don’t look elsewhere after having the privilege to see those very private areas of their bodies,” he said.
The experience has not been different for arguably one of the biggest tattoo artists in the country – Bizzyaski. The Olabisi Onabanjo University graduate, who operates mostly from the Ikeja area of Lagos and boasts of a rich clientele, said that only professionalism has helped him overcome the temptation he constantly comes across in the course of doing his job.
“Truthfully, there are times you get aroused and your body moves in the course of doing tattoos on those very delicate parts of a woman’s body but my focus is always on doing a perfect job; so I can handle it very well. It indeed takes a lot of professionalism to be able to deal with the situation,” he said.
On a visit to different parts of Lagos to interact with artists in the business of tattoos, the discovery was as interesting as it was shocking.
For example, Kelvin, a 35-year-old operating around the under bridge section of Ikeja, Lagos’s capital, said that after being carried away by this seeming interesting side of the job, he learnt to brush aside seductive female clients as time wore on.
“The opportunity to see different parts of a female body is one of the most interesting aspects of this job,” he said jokingly during an encounter with one of our correspondents.
“I remember the first of this kind of tattoos I did was on the bum, and of course the lady had to pull down her pant and back me. I must say that it was not easy coping. The saving grace however, for me was that she came with her friend who stayed with us throughout the session. Maybe something else could have happened that day.
“There was a day I did a tattoo on a lady’s cleavage, I can’t forget that experience. I had to occasionally touch the boobs. She knew what was happening but didn’t say anything. I was shocked, to be honest.
“Over the years, I have come to realise that most young ladies want tattoos but can’t afford them, so they seduce and even offer sex just to get it done. Some of our colleagues fall for it, but for me, after many years on the job, you have to pay my money. This strategy by female clients is really affecting many tattoo artists,” he added.
But apart from inking the skin of clients – male and female, Kelvin also offers genital piercings. According to him, a lot of female clients besiege his studio for the piercing of the external walls of their vaginas and even clitoris.
“Piercing the clitoris is fairly common, because as you may know, people pierce different parts of their body these days. What we do is to use a device to hold the clitoris, pierce it to make a hole and then ring it. I get several demands from female clients on a weekly basis,” he disclosed.
Another young man also making good money from tattoos and piercings in private areas of the body of young ladies, is Wale. The lanky young man, who revealed that he has been in the business for at least nine years, told Saturday PUNCH that offers of free sex by female clients is a regular feature on the job.
“I have been tempted on several occasions, but the most tedious part is that some of them come with an open mind. They don’t have money, but they want the tattoo, hoping that by the time you get carried away, you would likely want to have sex with them.
“I have encountered one that came with condom, but I had to refuse. She wanted to draw butterfly around her labia, which was extremely tempting, and it happened when I really needed money. At the end of the day, she didn’t pay me in full because she said she didn’t have the N15,000 I charged. She gave me N10,000 and the rest was history. I just fondled her and we played a bit before she left. Since then, we became friends,” he said.
A consultant dermatologist, Prof. Frances Ajose, pointed out that tattooing could also come with some complications. She said the sources of concern could range from the substances used in the colouring to the needle, the incidences of infection and the risk of cancer.
She said, “It depends on what is used and of course the first thing is the needle used. If an infected needle is used, infections like HIV and hepatitis can be transmitted. The second problem is from the dye used to do the tattoo. The dye can stimulate allergic reactions and some people develop allergy at the sight of the tattoo.
“More dangerously, some people use mercury product as the colour of the tattoo and mercury is toxic to the kidney. So, using mercury product could lead to kidney damage. Those are the main problems.
“We have also seen development of skin cancer at the site of the tattoo.”
