Chapter 1 Yin and Yang Tattoo (2/2)

The use of such a wide range of yin and yang embroidery should have had a broader market, but my master did not let me use yin and yang embroidery to make money.

When my master died, he told me again and again that I could not touch the yin and yang embroidery, otherwise I would suffer retribution.

The reason my master was so opposed to it had to do with the matter of Guan Gong opening his eyes to kill.

It happened after the first two years of my apprenticeship with master.

At that time, the situation was chaotic in southern Fujian, and there were many reactionary gangs. A gangster asked my master for a tattoo; he wanted a picture Kuan Kung to be tattooed on his back.

My master refused him immediately, saying that he would not tattoo Kuan Kung, for Kuan was a saint and was also a symbol of blessing. The common people were not fortunate enough to carry Kuan. As a tattoo, he would easily bring about misfortune.

My master had something else in mind that he didn’t say. Kuan was also a kind of yin and yang embroidery, and if someone wanted to tattoo Kuan, it would be the dark. It needed his life hard enough. My master saw the man’s physiognomy and knew that he wasn’t far from the grave, so he told him he couldn’t tattoo Kuan.

That man didn’t care, and he forced my master to tattoo.

My master argued with him, saying he couldn’t tattoo him.

As a result, the man called over a lot of his gangster friends. My master’s tattoo parlor was full of people, one of them holding a gun to my master’s waist.

My master had no choice left, and he said, “ If you want this tattoo, then I will do it. But if you have an accident, don’t come looking for me.”

Usually, a tattoo took a long time to do. One first had to tattoo the foundation, and then fill in the colors. Because the sketch of Kuan was very large, it took a whole week to draw him.

However, just after the foundation was finished, that man had an accident.

The accident was particularly strange. My master heard that the man went to the bathhouse to have a bath, where he suddenly sank in the bathhouse pool, no longer able to float.

At that time he was not the only one taking a bath, and there were many people beside him. When they saw this situation they all tried to pull him out, but the man would not budge, as if a heavy rock weighed him down.

They could only helplessly watch the man drown in the bathhouse.

Once the man died, his body unexpectedly floated up. When the rescuers carried him to the edge of the pool, the tattoo of Kuan on his back suddenly opened its eyes.