Taipei has long been home to a booming drag queen scene, but this weekend the kings will ascend to the throne. Swapping wigs and stilettos for silicon sixpacks and speedos, drag kings are revolutionizing Taipei’s queer spaces.
Saturday night, “tattoo as performance” takes drag to daring new heights in a biblical-themed night of SIN, with headliner and host Pretty Hairy King (@prettyhairyking) set to be tattooed live on stage.
Get ready for an evening of “drag, dancing and queer arts” at Barcade Daan, kicking off at 7pm with a pop-up marketplace and tarot card readings. At 9pm, a vibrant lineup of kings, queens and “things” from the drag universe take to the stage, before dancing the night away, with DJ Marcus Aurelius playing the afterparty 11pm-2am.
Photo courtesy of Pretty Hairy
Tattoo artist Veronica Chen (陳莞竺), who is event co-organizer, will offer flash tattoos for those feeling brave both before and after the show.
Billed as a “biblical epic,” the event will see headlining king Pretty Hairy transform into an unrepentant mega-church pastor, suffering eternal damnation at the hands of the Grandmother God (林祖媽). She brands him with a tattoo and reminds him of the seven deadly sins, personified by seven drag performers.
SIN will provide an inclusive space for all members of Taipei’s loud and proud LGBTQ+ community: Pretty Hairy designs shows where “queerness is centered, and where everyone feels welcome to explore themselves,” not only welcoming but celebrating women, non-binary and trans people.
Photo courtesy of Syrus Sadvandi
Taipei already hosts an internationally renowned drag queen scene; just head to Ximending on any Saturday night, where sequin-adorned queens sashay and lip sync to packed-out bars surrounding the Red House.
But there’s some new kings in town and the Taipei scene is ever-expanding. Uncle Southside from Singapore and host of Another Drag Show, Taipei’s only king-run comedy event, regularly offers drag workshops for newcomers.
This is exactly where Pretty Hairy first got his start during Taipei Pride 2022. Just a year later, he was the only king to perform on the Red House Stage at Taipei Pride 2023.
Excluding the obvious, what sets the kings apart from the queens? Pretty Hairy explains that many kings are “storytellers first and foremost.”
Serving well-crafted costumes and raunchy gags, kings offer a risque, playful and daring performance art that highlights key issues in their community: “sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s dramatic, sometimes it’s a call to action.”
Any performance by Pretty Hairy will shock, intrigue and question masculinity and queerness, and Saturday night is shaping up to be one SINful night of divine retribution.
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