Disgruntled Asian Tattoo Artist Inks His Revenge

thenerdguy

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Pitt junior Brandon Smith wanted a tattoo that proclaimed his manliness, so he decided to get the Chinese characters for ?strength? and ?honor? on his chest. After 20 minutes under the needle of local tattoo artist Andy Sakai, he emerged with the symbol for ?small penis? embedded in his flesh.

?I had it for months before I knew what it really meant,? Smith said.

Then I went jogging through the Carnegie Mellon campus and a group of Asian kids started laughing and calling me ?Shorty.? That?s when I knew something was up.?
Sakai, an award-winning tattoo artist, was tired of seeing sacred Japanese words, symbols of his heritage, inked on random white people. So he used their blissful ignorance to make an everlasting statement. Any time acustomer came to Sakai?s home studio wanting Japanese tattooed on them, he modified it into a profane word or phrase.

All these preppy sorority girls and suburban rich boys think they?re so cool ?cause they have a tattoo with Japanese characters. But it doesn?t mean shit to them!? Sakai said. ?The dumbasses don?t even realize that I?ve written ?slut? or ?pervert? on their skin!?

In the last month, seven people unknowingly received explicit tattoos from the disgruntled artist. Kerri Baker, a Carlow College freshman, paid $50 to have the symbols for ?beautiful goddess? etched above her belly button, but when she went into Szechuan Express Asian Noodle Shop sporting a bare midriff, the giggling employees explained to her that the tattoo really said, ?Insert General Tso?s Chicken Here!?

I don?t even like General Tso?s!? Baker sobbed. ?I?m a vegetarian!?

Sakai doesn?t feel guilty about using hapless college students as canvases for his graffiti.

I think I?m helping my fellow man by labeling all the stupid people in the world,? he explained. ?It?s not a crime, it?s a public service.


Bahahahahaha! wipes a ;( from my eye.
 
h0h0h0h0!

Now that's funny, and i agree with what he said about the "preppy sorority girls and suburban rich boys".

lol @ the picture in the link
 
That's bloody hilarious... serves the buggers right.

What's with all the question marks, though?
 
When i copied the text some of the caraters didnt convert right. :(
 
All these preppy sorority girls and suburban rich boys think they’re so cool ‘cause they have a tattoo with Japanese characters. But it doesn’t mean shit to them!” Sakai said. “The dumbasses don’t even realize that I’ve written ‘slut’ or ‘pervert’ on their skin!”

“I think I’m helping my fellow man by labeling all the stupid people in the world,” he explained. “It’s not a crime, it’s a public service.

agreed...thank you mr. sakai
 
I think the guy is taking it too far, would you care if you were in japan and people thought it was cool to do an english word on their skin? Lets say they didn't all know english really well, then you'd be like, "Well this'll be an easy 100" and you'd make the money.

I think this guy is a little too hung up on how "sacred" the text of his culture is.
 
RandomPING said:
I think the guy is taking it too far, would you care if you were in japan and people thought it was cool to do an english word on their skin? Lets say they didn't all know english really well, then you'd be like, "Well this'll be an easy 100" and you'd make the money.

I think this guy is a little too hung up on how "sacred" the text of his culture is.
ehh.. maybe. but you have to admit that that's all easily mitigated by how ****ing hilarious it is, right? after going through 4 years of college, and being in grad school now (and having to deal with these kids all over again), all i can say is "ah hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!" i wish i had thought of that
:LOL: :LOL:
 
Actually, funny thing... I've seen T-shirts from Japan that were made by people who have absolutely no idea what they were writing. One was covered with rainbows and stars and so on, all bright and cheery and happy things, yet the lettering on the shirt said "I hate myself, I wish I was dead!".
 
Brian Damage said:
Actually, funny thing... I've seen T-shirts from Japan that were made by people who have absolutely no idea what they were writing. One was covered with rainbows and stars and so on, all bright and cheery and happy things, yet the lettering on the shirt said "I hate myself, I wish I was dead!".
www.engrish.com

side note: i knew a woman who had an interior design shop, and she used to make textiles of some sort (drapes i guess) that had fake "chinese" characters on them. my gf at the time (who spoke fluent mandarin) went and asked her what was up with the crazy script on her stuff. she replied that she just thought they looked nice (she made them herself), and the local (white-as-all-get-out) housewives didn't know the difference. i thought it was funny, but my gf (who was chinese, btw) was rather offended for some reason.. just goes to show you (something i'm sure).
 
RandomPING said:
I think the guy is taking it too far, would you care if you were in japan and people thought it was cool to do an english word on their skin? Lets say they didn't all know english really well, then you'd be like, "Well this'll be an easy 100" and you'd make the money.

I think this guy is a little too hung up on how "sacred" the text of his culture is.


I think he's doing a good thing, i'm sick of pretentious people who wander around with the Japanese tat's and they think they are really cool cos it says "Shane" or "Lee" on their arm in Japanese. Real cool :rolleyes:
 
RandomPING said:
I think the guy is taking it too far, would you care if you were in japan and people thought it was cool to do an english word on their skin? Lets say they didn't all know english really well, then you'd be like, "Well this'll be an easy 100" and you'd make the money.

I think this guy is a little too hung up on how "sacred" the text of his culture is.

you can't compare japanese and american language and culture like that...they're so different. Sure, maybe current japanese culture is a lot like america, but their ancient heritage goes back much much further than ours does.

We export our culture everywhere...mcdonalds, music, blah blah...and this guy is sick of americans trying to do the reverse...assimilate his culture into their own because "samurai are cool" or something.

and no, no english-speaking person would care if japanese people wanted english tattoos because there's nothing special about english words...they're everywhere...huge amounts of japanese people learn english...not too many americans speak japanese (or can write the characters)
 
So you spend $50 on this and get some crap written over you? I would return to his workshop and cut his head off with katana. How is that for heritage?
 
I think this guy is way out of line, if he didnt like doing the tatoos, then he should ahve just said no. I mean seriously, what is the point of being a tatooist, when you are just going to mess people around, make them look bad and even seriously hurt their feelings. Take for instance that vegetarian with hte chicking stuff on her. That is really messed up, i cant believe you support what he did. Just because of a couple of people who might be a bit pretentious, you say that uni students all deserve it.

Painting a council wall is one thing...branding someone with that kind of slander is totally different.


*EDIT* If forigen people decided to used the union jack (British flag), then i would feel quite happy about that. The flag is not printed everywhere like the language, and to see other people admiring my country like that would be nice.
 
Indeed. He is paid to do something, then he bloody well better do it if he agreed to it.

I know their culture is different... but still.
 
Farrowlesparrow said:
Take for instance that vegetarian with hte chicking stuff on her.

That was one of the best bits.

And stop being such a whiney little girl, Farrowlesparrow.
 
bastard_loud said:
That was one of the best bits.

And stop being such a whiney little girl, Farrowlesparrow.


Excuse me? You really don't care do you?

I'm not going to argue with you now because ther eis no point. But seriously, how can anyone find the suffering of other people in this way funny? How can you agree with a person who will knowingly mark someone for life with something that will torment them?
 
Farrowlesparrow said:
I think this guy is way out of line, if he didnt like doing the tatoos, then he should ahve just said no. I mean seriously, what is the point of being a tatooist, when you are just going to mess people around, make them look bad and even seriously hurt their feelings. Take for instance that vegetarian with hte chicking stuff on her. That is really messed up, i cant believe you support what he did. Just because of a couple of people who might be a bit pretentious, you say that uni students all deserve it.

Painting a council wall is one thing...branding someone with that kind of slander is totally different.

yup... and its only a matter of time before someone gets angry enough to shove a law suit so far up his ass, he won't care whether theres pretentious pple in the world..

bottom line: if it bugs him that much.. he shouldn't be in that line of work..
 
come on farrow, you know tattoos can be removed. besides, the suffering of others is the basic definition of comedy.

i assumed he was already being prosecuted.. libel at least huh?

edit: the general tso's chicken bit was one of the best :) hey, in the end, this will build these kid's character.
 
If you have any clothes with Chinese characters on them... do you know what they mean?! For instance, I have a shirt I got years and years ago that actually says "Monkey King" on it :p
 
Yeah well maybe i did over react, but lately its been bugging me that people will laugh at other because of something bad that happened. I dont just mean looking a bit of a fool, but stuff like this where someone can be going round for months not knowing what peopel are saying behind their backs.
 
of course there is the small lesson of "buyer beware" imbedded in this.. i don't really care about all the supposed 'specialness' of the japanese (or any other) script.. i think this guy was pretty much a tool that was defending something that's not there, but at the same time, stupid is as stupid does or something. they could have gone and looked up the appropriate character of whatever word they wanted and then showed the guy and be like "gimme this (pronounce it)". i mean if it's so special a script as to put it on your flesh, why not know a tiny bit about it huh? live and learn.

note: i could care less about tattoos, but generally find word-tattoos (in any language) pretty inane.
 
it's not that i support the fact that he was an ass and put offensive stuff on their bodies...i don't.

i support his frustration, though.

of course it's horrible to put something like that on someone's body, but c'mon...if you're going to get a tattoo in another language, a smart person would've looked up the correct symbols for themselves first.

of course he should've just said "FU, i'm not gonna put my culture on your body just because you think it's cool...get the hell out." if that's how he felt...but sometimes you just get pushed over the edge...frustrated to the point where you'll mess someone else up just to get yourself heard. of course he went too far, but why? because people think it's cool to do something offensive to someone else's culture...and that's just wrong :\

people do it with native american mascots thinking they're honoring them somehow, when most of the time they're just pissing people off and being ignorant...and it's ignorance that's the problem.

if i thought something like japanese characters was cool, i would take the time to research what the characters look like...why they look that way...what they mean, etc. I would also ask random asian people what they thought of that kind of thing...because i wouldn't want to walk around offending people because i didn't take the time to find out if i was an asshole.

Mr. Sakai's point was

All these preppy sorority girls and suburban rich boys think they’re so cool ‘cause they have a tattoo with Japanese characters. But it doesn’t mean shit to them!” Sakai said. “The dumbasses don’t even realize that I’ve written ‘slut’ or ‘pervert’ on their skin!”

"the dumbasses dont' even realize" and "it doesn't mean shit to them"

totally true. how can something have meaning for you if you don't even know its meaning?? some guy ran around with "small penis" tatooed on his body (in any language) and didn't know it...that's his fkn fault, imo.

again...of course mr. sakai was an ass...but i share his frustration even though i'm not asian. I'm sick of people in american doing shit "cause it's cool" when they're so freakin ignorant about what they're actually doing...and it's not just tatoos.
 
If you want shit written on you in a language you don't speak, just for the cause of looking "cool", then you deserve to get nailed like that.


edit: Just basically what Maskirovka said.
 
Lil' Timmy said:
come on farrow, you know tattoos can be removed. besides, the suffering of others is the basic definition of comedy.

i assumed he was already being prosecuted.. libel at least huh?

edit: the general tso's chicken bit was one of the best :) hey, in the end, this will build these kid's character.

well.. when i first read the article i too laughed.. but in all seriousness, that tatooist is just asking for it..

u say tatoos can be removed? hmm.. i thought removing tatoos is expensive.. i wouldn't know tho, since i don't have one and never bothered to know..

if it is expensive to remove it.. and only $50 to get it.. u can see why one would be pissed from a financial standpoint.. and in the off chance the person can't afford to have the tatoo removed.. that means that person is in for a very miserable time until it is removed..
 
Dr. Freeman said:
if it is expensive to remove it.. and only $50 to get it.. u can see why one would be pissed from a financial standpoint.. and in the off chance the person can't afford to have the tatoo removed.. that means that person is in for a very miserable time until it is removed..
yeah it's expensive. but again, live and learn.. there are a lot worse things that can happen to you than this. if it happened to me (not that i'd be dumb enough to do that, honestly.. maybe drunk though), i'd honestly appreciate the humor of it. it'd make for a great conversation piece :)
 
Dr. Freeman said:
yup... and its only a matter of time before someone gets angry enough to shove a law suit so far up his ass, he won't care whether theres pretentious pple in the world..

bottom line: if it bugs him that much.. he shouldn't be in that line of work..

i hope he gets sued for this...it would bring it into the national news. and with a non-retarded judge and/or jury, all he would have to do is pay for the removal of the wrong tatoos he did.

and you're in no position to make any judgements about what line of work he should be in. what if he loves doing all other tatoos but just hates the pretentious bastards that come in wanting japanese characters? that means he should quit just because of a bunch of ignorant kids? i don't think so...

i agree with timmy...this gives people another reminder of "buyer beware" and "don't be a moron" and will serve to build their character more than him saying "you're an asshole for wanting japanese characters on you...get out of here" ever could have.
 
Maskirovka said:
and you're in no position to make any judgements about what line of work he should be in. what if he loves doing all other tatoos but just hates the pretentious bastards that come in wanting japanese characters? that means he should quit just because of a bunch of ignorant kids? i don't think so...

i am not judging him.. i did put a "if" in that line of work sentence..

and i know u agree that what he did was wrong etc.. and.. well if he felt that offended that pple want sacred letters on their flesh.. like u said, he should have refused to do it (thats assuming he loves his job.. enjoys doing tatoos..just not for these "pretentious bastards") that would have been the right thing to do.. but now he has ran the risk of being sued and whatever else..
 
I'm not sure, but I think that site may be a parody like the onion. but I've heard that such things are true, or even common.

Japan does it to us too though, as some companies use random english words to have a cool exotic look to thier products. Like kid's shirts with swear words written across in large bold font (true story). I can't believe how they (and we) can get away with it. :)
 
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

That guy is awesome. I appreciate any effort to make fun of stupid college kids, but this is the best. :cheese:
 
yea...i guess the way i justify laughing at this kind of thing...y'know...laughing at others' misfortune...is by noticing that the people that have the most misfortune are the most ignorant and worthless people around and they somehow deserve it.
 
Lil' Timmy said:
oh ok so that's what engrish is. every time i said "english class" to one of my friends he kept saying engrish and it really confused me.

BlazeKun said:
If you have any clothes with Chinese characters on them... do you know what they mean?! For instance, I have a shirt I got years and years ago that actually says "Monkey King" on it :p
i think somebody at school had a shirt that said "wooden dog" on it.
 
Treat others as you would have them treat you. He's treated people who have put their faith and trust in the skills and abilities he professes with contempt, honestly he isn't deserving of anything more than contempt as a result.

Like many I'm pretty tired of the wear it on your sleeve/shoulder appropriation of other cultures, but it isn't anything new. It's been going on for centuries, and until such time as the myriad cultures of the world merge into one unified whole it will continue (so some time yet).
 
Kadayi Polokov said:
Treat others as you would have them treat you. He's treated people who have put their faith and trust in the skills and abilities he professes with contempt, honestly he isn't deserving of anything more than contempt as a result.

Yes, he betrayed their trust, but he did it in the name of protecting his culture. He probably even sacrificed his job and reputation because of it. He didn't do it just for laughs. That is, in fact, a very honorable act.
 
LoneDeranger said:
Yes, he betrayed their trust, but he did it in the name of protecting his culture. He probably even sacrificed his job and reputation because of it. He didn't do it just for laughs. That is, in fact, a very honorable act.
he could have slain them with his mystical katana... how's that for respecting the culture?
 
LoneDeranger said:
Yes, he betrayed their trust, but he did it in the name of protecting his culture. He probably even sacrificed his job and reputation because of it. He didn't do it just for laughs. That is, in fact, a very honorable act.

I also agree that Japanese Writing is an ultra-honor script that musn't be defiled by the white man. It's so much more honorable than that other type of writing I've heard of called English.

Living in America, then starting a business, then betraying your own customers trust and tricking them into looking stupid for other asian people is an honorable part of the Shido Kai Code.
 
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