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Boredom leads a young man into a lifestyle he can't shake as easily as he'd like in this gritty drama from writer and director Wang Liren. Leizi was born and raised in a small town in Southern China, and he's lived there just long enough to be sick of it. By day Leizi is a member of the Chinese military, but at night he and a handful of friends get together to raise hell for lack of anything better to do. Leizi gets drunk most nights with his pals Qingmao and Hei-di, and Hei-di's girl Ah-hua sometimes tags along if she has nothing better to do. Ah-hua makes a living as a streetwalker, and the guys sometimes shake down her clients for money to keep their assignations secret; Qingmao and Hei-di also deal stolen goods for a local underworld kingpin, Mr. Lian. Leizi knows his life as a drunk and a petty crook is getting him nowhere, and when he falls for a girl who comes from a law-abiding Christian family, he's tempted to reform for her sake, but has he fallen too deep into the cycle of crime to change? Tattoo was an official selection at the 2009 Rotterdam International Film Festival.