In some Chinese classical literatures, tattoo was called "Ci Shen" (刺身) or "Ci Chin" (刺青), which means "puncturing the body". Sometimes, it was also called "body decoration" (紋身) or "carve in the bluish green"(纹青).

In Chinese history, the government officials used to adopt "Tattooing people's face" as a kind of torturing punishment for "criminal offenders". There were 5 traditional torturing punishments for criminals with tattooing being one of them.
It was called "inking punishment" (墨刑).The great wall of China was built 2000 years ago and many of the builders were actually prisoners. Every prisoner's face was punctured with tattoo symbols "城旦", which means "wall character". So the tattoo was used as a disgraceful punishment in those days.