Girls Next Door With Tattoos: Nourene

People have a variety of reasons to tattoo themselves. Bad boys tattoo themselves to identify with a particular gang. Soldiers tattoo themselves to bond or to remember some significant event. Monks and other religious/superstitious people tattoo themselves to show their commitment to their faith. The process is painful, but these macho guys and faithful devotees are not deterred. But why would a seemingly prim, proper and delicate Asian girl like Nourene want to endure the pain and tattoo herself?

Well, she did it to show her love for her first boyfriend. After they broke up (not surprisingly), she did a bigger tattoo to cover up the love that had gone bad. Sadly, Nourene didn't learn her lesson that time. When she had another boyfriend, she tattooed his name to show her love for him. As expected, the relationship was short-lived. She covered that tattoo up as well. This time, she learned her lesson. No more names.

In this photoessay, Singaporean author Chan Joon Yee attempts to show not only the prim, proper and somewhat Singaporean side of Nourene, the girl next door, as well as the wilder side of her multi-faceted personality.