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John Lindsey
3rd July 2000, 13:59
While going through my Army physical last Friday, I noticed that many of the new recruits were tattooed, and that the medical officer even asked if anyone had any new tattoos or piercings since their last physical. The two most popular styles of tattoos were what the doctor classified as “tribal art” and “Chinese” which could just as easily been called Japanese.

So, since I am behind the “culture curve” can someone explain the popularity of Kanji tattoos? I guess it is because they are exotic looking. My young daughter reminded me that one of the Spice Girls has a Kanji Tattoo and that this might be one reason for it.

On a related note, how often is kanji used as a tattoo subject in Japan with Japanese? If you are thinking of getting a kanji tattoo, AND planning on training in Japan, you might want to think twice about it. I have heard more than a few stories about foreigners with kanji tattoos getting very strange looks in Japan…or have times changed now?

kabutoki
3rd July 2000, 16:53
Hi John !
I´ve got a funny story to add. A friend of mine, who is in the same semester in japaneseas me has got a kanji tatoo. Last week we went out and didn´t knew about ot before so I asked him to show it to me. As he lifted his shirt to show the upper arm a japanese who accompanied us began to smile. After a few seconds he told my friend that the kanji is written exactly the other way round ( Idon´t know the english term but when read in a mirror it is right.) He got this tatoo only two weeks before he began his studies. He should have been waiting some weeks. Now he can´t get rid of the thing and yesterday he got a scholarship for ôsaka for one year. He might get a few strange looks...

In germany asia is coming back for a new boom. You can get everything decorated with kanji. I saw a t-shirt with "inu" (dog) on it (worn by a nice woman...).

Is it the same in the US ?

Yours Karsten

james
3rd July 2000, 18:35
hoi

the youth in the us are taking up the kanji/asia culture bits as trends

the kanji is all over department and specialty stores in the form of button up shirts, decorated w/ dragons and all the generic flavors of asia

rap music, the exploits of the wu-tang clan and others, as well as resurrected interest in chambara films (which, coincidentaly, is often accompanied by said rap music) have become a big thing amongst the high school crowd. suddenly everyone wants to learn kung-fu (though when pressed about the style or forms one is only answered w/ a blank stare) and movies are quoting the hakagura(sp?)

just seems like a chinese version of the ninja craze in the eighties

my 2 cents anyway

hoshizawa
3rd July 2000, 19:27
Down here at the local martial art supply store, the owners were going broke until they started a kung fu movie rental section and it took off like hotcakes! I definately agree with the whole Wu Tang, Sisco, hood kanji connection. It seems when I was a kid everyone there thought they knew some art because off Kung Fu Theater on USA, which doesn't come on anymore.Now Jackie Chan and Jet Li have replaced that.

When I was in Europe in the club scene, the trend seemed to begin about 97-98. In London the Asian connection in dance music Talvin Singh(sp?) and Deep Dish forefronted a kinda wanton asian flavor to a music called speed garage. That music even enfluenced the fashion industry in London and Paris due to it being the new thing at the time. In Germany my wife bought a lot of those kanji shirts as well at major department store called H & M.


Alot of the oriental gangs back home in LA have been sporting kanji tattoos for the longest. Hollywood Tattoo on the Sunset strip has pushed kanji tattoos to first timers for years with ones like bushi, hate, supreme one, and even matching love kanji for lovers. What's funny is I have kanji tattoos and in the past everyone thought I was a biker, now they think I'm with it or a Wu-soldier, kids!

Oh well life goes on,
Earnie Warnick

kabutoki
3rd July 2000, 21:11
Hi Earnie !
How funny that you mentioned H&M. It was exactly the store I thaught most of when typing my answer. Check the kanji if you like. I hope you didn´t get some of the fake kanji here in germany.
Another interesting point about these shirts is that nearly no women seems to believe you when you tell her that you "REALLY" read their shirts. A friend of mine had some funny experiences with girls who accused him of staring at their...
Life is hard in these days...lol

Yours Karsten

4th July 2000, 00:13
I was drinking with some of my judo friends who also happen to be connected to the local yakuza group in Yokohama several years ago when the subject of tattoos came up. Of course, most of them have nearly full-body tattoos. As the beer changed to whiskey, I told them the story of how I had chickened out from getting a U.S. Navy tattoo after boot camp. I must have mentioned that I regretted not getting the tattoo in some ways, because the next morning I woke up with the kanji characters for my name tattooed on the inside of my right ankle. (I must have been sober enough to insist on the placement where it wouldn't be noticed.) I told my wife that I did it in case they ever needed to recognize the body.

hoshizawa
4th July 2000, 00:18
Is that Flensburg bei Danemmark?
Me and the wife stayed overnight to do some clubbing there on the way back from Copenhagen on the s-bahn. Hope that's the same one!
Wiedersehen,
Earnie Warnick

kyle
4th July 2000, 14:15
I do many physicals in the Army, periodical, schools, etc...and a standard part of it is asking about tattoos. In the Army now you cannot have a tattoo that is visible while in a certain uniform. Also, you cant have tattoos that are gang related, racist, etc.

Anyway, MANY of the soldiers that I have done physicals on have oriental writing...one in particular i remember now...the guy had some writing on his forearm...I asked him what it said, and he said it was his children's names in chinese. I had to do a double take because the writing was obviously Korean. I am no expert, but I spent a year in Korea, and can kindof tell the difference between at least korean and others,,,,

Kyle Cooper

hoshizawa
4th July 2000, 16:47
Yeah,
The tattoo thing kinda blows, I had them before I came in
about 10 years ago and I've always been in units that had sleeves down until I came to Division here at Bragg. I even know guys who were kicked out after the Burmeister incident and the sniper at pt incident.

Well no one even knew what mine meant until those incidents
so now they even had a Chinese soldier translate the kanji tattoos I have in repo from CID. Here in SWC I don't have too many problems, which reminds me of a story.

I was in a school about 5 years ago when I was repelling down a tower and I was standing by, then the OIC of the school told me to talk to him on the ground. I get there and he says he saw the kanji on my chest. He didn't even ask me what it was and offered me a job in one of his private companies working in the East. He wouldn't tell me what it was but it didn't sound good, until he said I would be ETS'ed and would still wear the uniform!?

So, I guess even some criminals see tattoos as a he's down with our way of doing things at times. That's about the only time I regret getting them.

Gambatte!!!
Earnie Warnick

kabutoki
4th July 2000, 18:21
To Earnie !
Yes it is the very same Flensburg, my hometown. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Next time you are here make sure to visit our dojo.

Karsten

kyle
5th July 2000, 08:55
I have a few soldiers here whose command want the tattoos removed (on neck) but the tattoo removing device in germany is sitting in a room not hooked up, and has been that way for a year!

Hoshiwaza,,,youre at SWC? 18series? I used to be a 18D but now am a lowly PA!,,,I miss the dayz....

Kyle Cooper

hoshizawa
7th July 2000, 23:16
Hopefully next year I'll be done, just started 18E course, which sucks because I studied calc and place because I was selected as a Charlie. You know they just changed selection, they go through 3 stars, a trek, and SUT'S, some good stuff! A good thing the standard has gotten rougher than weaker! They kicked out team week, but they do some of the events in the trek! The experimental class just finished with a 20% pass ratio!

CIAO!
Earnie Warnick

KarateMonk
9th July 2000, 20:28
If I might add my 2 cents:

Kanji is exotic and different. Having "Fierce" or some such tattooed on you isn't cool, but the same thing in Japanese is. I'm reminded of gang tattoos, having "North Side", or whatever across the stomach in big old English style letters. Not something that looks great in my eyes, but kanji....well that's just different ;) I've heard Japanese teens are the opposite, they like english words on T-Shirts, even if the words are put in combinations that don't make sense to us, they just like the way they look together.

People are the same all over....

hoshizawa
9th July 2000, 20:33
Awhile back there was a Japanese brand of chips called doo doo chips or poo poo chips!

Earnie Warnick

Kris
16th July 2000, 01:55
I do find the kanji fad interesting, but I wish people would educate themselves before using them.

A few weeks ago I saw a guy who had his Honda ride totally tricked out. What was amusing were the large gold kanji across the back window. It didnt read Honda.... it read Nissan.

Enfield
27th July 2000, 00:48
Originally posted by hoshizawa
Awhile back there was a Japanese brand of chips called doo doo chips or poo poo chips!

The best one I've seen is a brand of cookies called "Colon Creme."

Tetsutaka
27th July 2000, 01:34
Originally posted by hoshizawa
Awhile back there was a Japanese brand of chips called doo doo chips or poo poo chips!

Earnie Warnick


Man, I'd pay $20 bucks for a T-shirt that said that

but not a tattoo...

hoshizawa
27th July 2000, 01:43
I'll ask someone over there if they can send a bag,,,, of chips that is!

Gambatte Kudasai!
Earnie Warnick

Steve Williams
4th August 2000, 23:05
Here in the UK kanji tattoo's are very popular, very often with women (trying to be like the spice girls??)

If you are hoping to go to a bathhouse in Japan you will probably be asked to leave if you have any tattoos, most bathhouses have signs to this effect (due to the yakuza connection of tattooing), yes you will be "evicted" even if you kanji translates as "very nice person" or "animal lover".
Try this site
www1.viceland.com/Vice/read.jhtml?ix=%2FVice%2FSXMLArticles%2Fv6n8p53.the_vice_g.xml
good for a joke insite into this growing craze.

Sorry messed up the web address before, hope it reads better now

[Edited by Steve Williams on 08-06-2000 at 11:52 AM]

Kreth
8th August 2000, 03:02
Originally posted by W.Kent Bergstrom
here's mine,
how bout yours?


Well, some of the picture quality is so-so, but I have pics of my recently completed sleeve at http://www.kreth.org/ink/outline.htm

Jeff

Joseph Svinth
11th August 2000, 05:50
http://www.tattoos.com/mieko.htm

ghp
11th August 2000, 07:04
Joe,


Penal Tattooing :eek:

...The most crucial shift was the practice of tattooing as a form of punishment in 1720.... :smash: The criminals were tattooed with a black ring around an arm for each offense, or with a Japanese character on the forehead....

Phew! I felt the pain for a moment.

But, I won't let that get under my skin.

Regards,
Guy

ScottNY
9th December 2002, 08:44
I do not know the story behind the popularity of kanji merchedise, but I do have a couple of funny stories. A Japanese friend of mine and I were talking about them one day. SHe mentioned a girl that she knew who got a tattoo that was suposed to be "beautiful girl" or something like. Well my friend told me that when she say it she had to tell her what it really meant cause she had gotten ripped off. It meant "small livestock". Another story is of a friend who knew someone with a lot of kanji on a shirt. Well when it was translated it came out to mean "i like to rape little girls". So just a tip, if you you want a kaji tattoo make sure you know the kanji before hand, and dont trust the tattooist's knowledge of Japanese.

leoboiko
9th December 2002, 11:18
Another funny story. A Brazilian TV artist tattooed the name of his son "in Chinese writing". But the name wasn't Chinese nor Japanese. So the tattooer wrote Kanji with similar pronounce - that is, he used the Kanji as phonetic symbols.

The guy tattooed "dog in flowing water", if I recall correctly, thinking it was his son's name.