The Everyday Exotic

The other night i was sitting at a bar with another tattooist and some friends discussing kanji characters. I mentioned that its so ironic that in the three yeas i've been tattooing i've probably done hundreds of Japanese and Chinese characters... but never ONCE on a Japanese or Chinese person!! One person mentioned that many people find kanji to be a little exotic and it makes them feel a little mysterious or some junk because noone else can read it at first or whatever. Hell, i know i wouldnt get one personally but i aint hatin' on 'em. That just aint really my culture so i'm not really trying to jump on that band wagon. But what is REALLY making these tattoos so damn popular among people of non-asian descent?!?!

I think there once was a time when they looked exotic, and not to sound like a cultural snob or anything like that, but with the internet explosion, and the fairly affordable travel expenses and convenience of plane fare, the average person can go almost anywhere on the planet at will now, so that cheapened any "exotic" qualities. Prior to the 1960's, Asia was a far away place that the few traveling businessmen and our military were the only ones to see. I'm seeing more and more Arabic lettering tattoos now, and I believe for the same reasons as above, with everything going on in the middle east, the average person doesn't just go there unless it's a military deployment of sorts or people with family there; to the average person, perhaps Arabic is the new exotic? Many times (not all) it still goes back to people wanting some sort of "secret code" that only they know what it means so they can look deep and mysterious. You could slap the symbol for a food dish native to the culture they think they're getting tattooed on them and they wouldn't know the difference. It is really an honor to tattoo someone who has actually researched the culture and knows the meanings not only of the translation of the symbols but what they actually mean to them in life. The people that actually have the tattoo for their deep, deep meanings to themselves. Not the people that accessorize their bodies with tattoos to look cool. On a side note, I also read on the net about a year ago about a tattoo artist in Hong Kong that tattooed random english letters on the locals there, because english letters were all the rage there. The funny thing, and I'm sure this happens here as well, he is not fluent in english and can't read it, so he would take letters off of soda cans and candy wrappers and mix them up, people have "Splxug" and "lkjok" tattooed on them thinking it's something else. I wish I could find that article again, it's hilarious.

this brings up something that I found a bit of humor in, not that I condone it, but several years ago(mid 80's), there was a tattooist from the chicago area(I wont mention his name) who had a bunch of Kanji translated 200 pieces or so, on his design sheets though, he had a completely different meaning placed under the characters, for instance if the translation said honor, the actual kanji might have said dick head. he did this for his own amusement. I know for fact there are alot of people running around with some really nasty things tattooed on them while thinking it is representing something else. now heres the funny part, I was told that while he was putting something really derogatory in meaning on someone, an Asain customer came in and Laughed histerically at the guy who just had pig fucker done in kanji, this tattooist has since stopped doing this, but heres where it gets better, he sold many sets of these designs, I wouldnt be suprised to find that there are alot of these sets still around. for this reason I wont buy any Kanji.

I have a little bit of Chinese on me for reasons I won't get into (lengthy) but yeah I had it translated by 5 different sources. I have to admit... that's actually pretty freaking funny about the dude in Chicago. Likewise, I don't condone it, but it would be kinda funny to see some hot babe walking around with a tramp stamp that says "Face like a horse". Okay, see? I have my moments too. Life aint life without a sense of humor...