User:Tun Dipa/sandbox

Ka Gee (Burmese: ကၾကီး; born Aung Kyaw Hein on 29 March 1985) is a Burmese tattoo artist based in Yangon. He is one of the best-known tattoo artists in Myanmar and has worked with celebrities including Khin Hlaing, Kyar Pauk, Wai La, Terror Bass, Nyein Chan Su, Yair Yint Aung, Phyo Pyae Sone, A Linn Yaung, May Oo, Lain Maw Thee, Gae Gae, and Yun Waddy Lwin Moe.

Background
Ka Gee was born as an only son in Yangon, Myanmar. He started drawing when he was five years old. “I’m an only child. I started drawing when I was five years old. You know hobbies are the best playmates for people without siblings,” Ka Gee said in an interview with a local monthly periodical MYANMORE.

He came to know tattoos from his older cousins. Although he thought tattoos were awesome, he did not dare get one. Ka Gee was aware that infectious diseases like AIDS can spread via unclean needles.

After graduating he had worked at a magazine. In 2012, he quit his job to start a living as a tattooist. He bought a tattoo machine through an online service and started practicing on his skin. He never had any formal training in art and rather taught himself from YouTube videos and fellow artists.

Career
In the Burmese alphabet, Ka Gee (က) is the first letter. He used it as an alias since it is a symbol of being the first or prime in a particular profession.

His breakthrough came when his work with a local DJ Michael Xeno caught the attention of the masses on Facebook in 2014. The bio-mechanical design tattoo in the shape of a Technics brand DJ mixer put Ka Gee on the map.

It was followed by a video diary of a rapper G Tone getting inked. In a country where tattoos are often seen as taboo, the video made waves among the younger generation.

Ka Gee took part in Human Rights Tattoo when a Dutch artist Sander van Bussel and his team invited people to a downtown Yangon venue to have a letter from the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights tattooed on their skin on 18 and 19 June 2016.

He is also responsible for reintroducing the Myanmar traditional art of Htoe Kwin to the contemporary tattoo scene. Ironically, the client who asked him to ink Htoe Kwin was not Burmese but a French expatriate.