I'm still waiting for someone to come forward and say that they have a tattoo of Soke on their chest like that stalker out of "I'm Alan Partridge".....
I know someone who was working on getting takamatsu or hatsumi on his back. Seriously. I think we managed to talk him out of it though. Although, I haven't seen him in a couple of years and I don't know what the finished product looks like.
No one will say anything to you at Hombu. Think about it... The majority of students coming to the Hombu are foreigners and so it is only sensible that we not be subject to criticism for tattoos there. The shihan and Soke obviously understand western culture and wouldn't suspect us as being involved in something resembling the Yakuza from our respective countries. No worries there.
I think having a complete Shinobi Gi tatooed on you in black or even red ink would be a really "special" ninja tattoo.
i take it from this, that the perception is tattoo = yazuka in japan then? normal bods don't get ink? its that much of a taboo?
Normal bodies -do-, in fact, get tattoos in Japan, but it is still associated with a sort of underground culture that doesn't mix well with the types of crowds that normally go to fitness gyms, hot springs, etc. I mean, you need only go to Roppongi to see many lovely Japanese ladies with tattoos on the small of their backs and such, and how they still so thin without being able to go to the gym is beyond me, but its there. In fact, I had a conversation with some guys in the tattoo shop about this topic last week when trying to help my friend Jeff find work for such in Japan. Oddly enough, as a tattoo artist Jeff has many tattoos himself, yet he was allowed to partake in cleansing rituals and such at a Shingon temple in the mountains that he visited last week. Thus, the conclusion is that it varies everywhere.
to be fair, its only really been the last decade when tatoos seem to have exploded into the mainstream over here in the UK. but there are still places where its frowned on... a club in york has a sign on the door...(well it did when i used to live there a few years ago) 'no visible tattoos' as part of the dress code but i noticed the doormen never stopped the ladies with crop-tops going in showing some tribal on the lower back... but if you were a bloke, you wouldn't get away with it.. (but then, if you're a bloke going out in a 'crop-top', what do you expect? )
Yes, the ladies get away with everything, don't they? And I'd be thankful for any bouncer that keeps men in "crop-tops" out of the same club as me.
*Nick goes to step out the front door, reads Silentnightfall's post then goes back in his room to get changed....* I knew I shouldn't have gone for that crop top Gi!
the best bit of advice i was given about tattoo's is when you find your design get it copied and stick it on your fridge door, if in a couple of weeks your sick of it guess it's not the right one. the club in york was it The Gallery, loverly place, door staff are so hospitable lol.
no, it was toffs, you know the one, that crap club in york (mind you, that could be equally applied to the gallery or 'ziggy's the sweat-box' ) the door staff in toff's used to hate me for some reason... every week the head door man would spot me in the queue and get on the radio to the bouncer doing the searches... every week i'd get searched, shoes off, mobile stripped, etc :bang: i only used to go in 'cos my mates were dj'ing in the back room downstairs. ------------- thats good advice about the picture on the fridge btw.
I have the perfect picture for this thread, but I don't know if it breaks the TOS. Some MOD PM me and I'll send it to you.
ahh toffs, the elegant place where you stick to the floor and there idea of cleaning at the end of the night was to throw whats left in the glasses on the floor.
LOL yeah, its a treat that place; the stella was watered down and tasted like the pipes hadn't been cleaned since they last mopped the floor bank holidays used to be fun when the clifton lot were in for an all dayer, you could tell which lasses came from the posh estate; they were the ones with the tattoos that were spelt right
but i noticed the doormen never stopped the ladies with crop-tops going in showing some tribal on the lower back... That's because these tattoo's have come to be known as "TRAMP STAMPS"
you're still as cheeky as you were when you were about 12 then I got the head shaved in 2001 and the beard went at the same time, I got sick of people using it for shime waza, or the other really funny one of standing on the end of it after finishing a technique while I got up so the guys problem wasn't that, the guys problem was his problem not mine, but he was king of his little crappy door on his little dirty back street, so I guess he was living his dream
