Changing Lives With Needle & Ink: Oscar Contender ‘They Call Me The Tattoo Witch’ Profiles Woman Who Transforms Scars Into Body Art

There are tattoo artists, and then there is Tran Ngoc.

What makes the woman from Hanoi, Vietnam so unique, apart from her talent, is her canvas: she has become known in her country for crafting tattoos around scars on the bodies of her clients.

Ngoc’s work is explored in the Oscar-contending short documentary They Call Me the Tattoo Witch, directed and produced by Lindsay Nyman. The film has won prizes at festivals around the world, including Best Documentary Short at the City of Angels Film Festival; Best Documentary Short and Best Cinematography at the Worldwide Women’s Film Festival in Phoenix, AZ; and Best Short Documentary at the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival in UK, among many others.

Watch the film’s trailer below.

“Tran Ngoc transforms scars into art, literally working over the scar tissue that most artists avoid,” notes a film synopsis. “Instead of concealing the mark, she studies its shape, texture, and story, incorporating it into her design so the wound itself becomes part of the beauty. In a culture where both scars and tattoos carry stigma, her work defies convention, turning what was once a source of pain into a symbol of strength. Through the intimate stories of her clients, They Call Me The Tattoo Witch reveals how ink can become a language of healing, reclamation, and self-worth.”

Nyman graduated from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, beginning her career in theater before she transitioned to writing and directing film.

“I first learned about Tran Ngoc when she appeared on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list,” Nyman explains in a director’s statement. “Among innovators in tech and finance, there she was, a tattoo artist from Hanoi, transforming scars into art. Her work stopped me cold. It wasn’t the tattoos themselves, but what they represented: a quiet rebellion against shame, and a deeply personal way of helping people see themselves differently.”

“When I reached out, I found someone grounded and thoughtful, with no interest in labels or attention. Ngoc spoke about her clients with a kind of reverence, not as subjects, but as collaborators in their own healing. I knew then this had to be a film not about tattooing, but about reclamation.”

The film’s cinematography is by Katie Eleneke. Marilyn Phạm Dacusin edited the film; the score is composed by Mark Hollingsworth.

“They Call Me The Tattoo Witch follows Ngoc and her clients as they turn pain into something chosen,” Nyman continues in her director’s statement. “Her studio becomes a space where people confront what hurt them and transform it into something they control. One woman, a breast cancer survivor, returns years later to visit Ngoc and share how the tattoos on her surgery scars changed her life. Seeing how much lighter she had become was profoundly moving, a reminder that healing can take many forms, and sometimes, something as unexpected as a tattoo can make a person feel whole again.

“Ngoc’s work is more than artistry. It’s a form of therapy. She helps her clients see themselves in a new way, not by erasing their past but by embracing it.”

The title of the film – They Call Me the Tattoo Witch — gestures toward the lack of social acceptance for Ngoc’s work. Nyman, too, broke barriers with her approach to the film project.

“I assembled an all-female crew in Hanoi, something nearly unheard of there,” she writes. “Several team members told me it was their first time on a set without men. That atmosphere changed everything. There was no hierarchy, only collaboration. The empathy and curiosity each woman brought shaped how we listened, how we framed each shot, and how we held space for our subjects. The result is a film that reflects not just the women in front of the camera, but those behind it.”

Watch the trailer for They Call Me the Tattoo Witch here: