Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot

Posted on October 7, 2008
Filed Under Before You Decide, Curious Tattoo Facts, Tattoo Designs, Tattoo Meanings

The mysterious eastern culture has always been attractive to westerners. Nowadays many young people think it is pretty cool and fashionable to have a hieroglyphic tattoo. They do not feel like bothering to find out good patterns and getting inside the culture, but just come to a tattoo shop, and ask for a tattoo which would say “love”, “truth” or whatever. I think I can understand the anger of tattoo artists. I personally would hate to tattoo “honor” in Japanese on someone who doesn’t give a $#!T about it. So here’s what can happen when you just try to follow fashion:

Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot

The Bronze medal goes to Joanne Raine, a teenage girl paid $160 to have her boyfriend’s nickname “Roo” tattooed on her stomach in Chinese, but got “Supermarket” instead. I bet, she had a bad time once she knew the truth.

Silver goes to Lee Becks. He says he wanted to have a tattoo which would look great. So he had one for $180 and was quite proud of it until he found out it said: “At the end of the day this is an ugly boy”. Very ironical isn’t it?

And the gold goes not to a victim but to an artist. Andy 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 a customer came to Sakai’s home studio wanting Japanese tattooed on them, he modified it into a profane word or phrase.

Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot 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.

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 was imprisoned. But you know what, this is NOT the end of the story. He had his inmates as prank targets. Using a tattoo gun fashioned out of a sharpened paper clip, dental floss, and a ballpoint pen taped to a plastic spork, the disgruntled prisoner has drawn Black Panther Party symbols on white supremacists, written CRIPS 4 EVA on rival gang members, and left dozens of hardened criminals with butterflies, fairies, and unicorns permanently etched in their skin.

Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot ‘I wanted a stack of skulls on my back,’ said murderer Jimmy Drake, “and that Asian prick gave me a giant Winnie the Pooh!”

Many prisoners ask for spider webs on their elbows to signify time spent in jail. Sakai’s webs have hidden messages in them such as, “F*ck Cops,” “I Swallow,” and “Salad Tosser.”

“Prison isn’t so bad,” Sakai said. “It gives me time to sit and seriously contemplate my next diabolically evil plan!”

So here is an advice for you: once you have decided to have a hieroglyphical tattoo, use some online services to have the word/phrase you’ve chosen for it translated for you properly. Or at least make friends with some Chinese or Japanese non-fun-loving guys. And please, make sure that artists name is NOT Andy Sakai…

Comments

28 Responses to “Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot”

Arnold on October 7th, 2008 7:44 am

Poor bastards, but they deserve it because they think they’re bad ass.
Becca on October 7th, 2008 7:54 am

OMG, I love you, Sakai! I’d LOVE to get a tattoo done by you! Lmao, that’s fantastic.
kat on October 7th, 2008 8:18 am

Very funny, but it is true,everyone should know what they are getting. Wander what happened to that asian guy in prison
Stupidity on October 7th, 2008 9:30 am

While it does sound funny that this “Artist” wrote the wrong words down, he is all in all a despicable loser. If you are fed up with DOING YOUR JOB, then maybe you should find a different line of work.

When someone PAYS you money for a tattoo, you should give them exactly what they ask for.

” I think I can understand the anger of tattoo artists. I personally would hate to tattoo “honor” in Japanese on someone who doesn’t give a $#!T about it.”

How can a TATTOO ARTIST KNOW if someone gives a $#!T about their tattoo or not? Obviously they give some kind of $#!T if they are PAYING MONEY TO HAVE IT PERMANENTLY APPLIED TO THEIR FLESH.

Sure tattoo artists have to deal with crappy tattoo requests. I agree Japanese tattoos on hapless white frat boys is pretty tacky and looks terrible and cliche. HOWEVER they want that crap, so if you don’t want to tattoo them, just tell them “I don’t do tattoos like that.”
Why ruin someones body forever because of something superficial?

Tattoo artists who do things like this are deplorable. They don’t deserve to have the job they have. They deserve to go back to working drive thru at Wendy’s.
bucky on October 7th, 2008 10:37 am

Brilliant. Great way to force learning and appreciation of other cultures. When those people looked at the symbols and said “i love it, let’s do it” it must have made him so happy. They should have the sense to do some research before doing something permanent.
Kryzz on October 7th, 2008 1:50 pm

Ironical is not a word. Also, Im sure if Andy Sakai really gave a Blood a “Crips 4 Ever” tatoo, he’d have been killed within the week.
Will on October 8th, 2008 12:33 pm

Uhm, before you write an article you should probably check the terms you’re talking about…hieroglyphs are ancient egyptian symbols, not chinese symbols. You know, like the ankh and the scarab beetle and such things

But on another note, yeah I definately think people should always check what the symbol means before you get it tattooed on your skin forever.. lol..poor ignorant poeple ending up with the wrong words.

But what if the mening you find for your symbol isn’t the real one, I know many places have their information mixed up…
c on October 8th, 2008 1:46 pm

The last one is a gag.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/roundup.asp
@stupidity on October 8th, 2008 2:19 pm

cry some more. do some goddamned research into what will be “PERMANENTLY APPLIED TO YOUR BODY”, or you deserve whatever the artist gives you.
Lex on October 8th, 2008 7:14 pm

i think this man is amazing. he is protecting his culture in the most hilarious way possible. if you don’t know what your tattoo means, maybe you shouldn’t get it. tattoos should represent the person, their culture and all. props to andy, for giving people what they deserve. he called people out on a ridiculous, inappropriate fad. it’s culture people, not something cool to do, because everyone else is doing it.

that said, i agree with the person above. if he really fucked up that many tattoos in prison, he would be dead. is this really a true story?

and ironical is not a word.

and to “stupidity,” that is exactly what you are. he was just expressing his views with a very bold statement. maybe one day you’ll have the balls to do the same.
Nancy on October 8th, 2008 10:42 pm

This would be way more amusing if it weren’t clearly false.
Prank Tattoo Lettering: The Artists Riot (Sakai Disclosure) on October 9th, 2008 12:03 am

[...] to our reader C we have found out that the story about Andy Sakai was a joke. According to Snopes, the source “Soaf Oakling fo’ Life!!!” is [...]
admin on October 9th, 2008 3:18 am

thanks everyone for your comments. i really appreciate your opinions.
francisonline on October 10th, 2008 1:32 am

i’m quite heavily tattooed, and i’ve been saying for years about people who get japanese words tattooed on to them; “how do you know? do you speak japanese?” i’m in absolute awe at the stupidity of some people.
ell on October 14th, 2008 4:09 am

im a tattooist from sydney australia and if you want a kanji put on what ever the meaning its your choice what gives u the right to judge anyones tattoos. when i got married my wife and i got true love in jap kunji over 10 years ago now having allmost a full body suit its meens the most to me talks cheep computer warriors.
by the way Andy Sakai,u try shit like that where i come from man your dead tough guy
Kat on October 20th, 2008 2:54 pm

yeah, the chinese signs are unoriginal, the but the guy doesn’t have to be such a jackass.
if i pay 180 dollars for a tattoo, you had better fucking give me the tattoo,
Caitlin on October 21st, 2008 5:02 am

In college I took Chinese courses. I took a trip to China and became big into the Chinese culture. I am a white Irish-American.
I got a small Chinese symbol for love tattooed on my shoulder blade. When I walked in the first shop and told the guy what I wanted he said he wouldn’t do it because I was doing it for all the wrong reasons. Just for a good look and that I probably didn’t know anything about the Chinese. Yea, I proved him wrong.
You don’t know who you are tattooing. You can’t tell by just looking at someone. So if someone wants a Japanese/Chinese tattoo, give it to them, it probably holds good meaning to them, not just a cheap look. I’m not going to give you over 100 dollars to put something on my body I do not give two shits about.
Chris on October 21st, 2008 8:04 am

Yeah…fake. I can’t believe people don’t see through this silly story.
D-chi on October 29th, 2008 9:15 pm

You know, getting an Asian-language tattoo may be a shallow thing for some people, but let the tattoo be their punishment. They have to live with their poserness for the rest of their life. Just let them get whatever tattoo they want and stop complaining about conformity and whatnot.
dj BENN-O on November 1st, 2008 5:04 pm

my tattoo artist, bald bill, told me about a friend of his who was sued because he gave some girl a tattoo of the wrong chinese character. but…here’s the kicker. she brought the character to him. she did her own research and messed up…she still won the suit.
Tara @ Tattoo Momma on November 2nd, 2008 7:57 pm

I do not understand why those people would not research what they would be adding to their canvas! What a bunch of idiots.
Savage on November 26th, 2008 2:03 pm

uh those aren’t heiroglyphics
bigherm on January 8th, 2009 2:02 pm

“Hieroglyphs” refer to the characters made by graphical figures.

in other words hieroglyphs aren’t JUST the egyptians, and not just pictures of animals. The term refers to any sort of symbol/picture used to represent a word.

morons.

In regards to the a**hole tattoo artists, well if you ever tried anything like that on me or someone around here you would be in for a world of hurt and a hefty lawsuit. people should research, but intentionally screwing it up is unacceptable. yes i have two kanji on my back, one for enlightenment and one for benevolence. i did my research and did not do it purely because it “looks cool”.

Flat out anyone who does this better be ready to be sued for every dime they have and then beaten severely.
PurpleMonkeyPaws on January 22nd, 2009 5:31 pm

This is why I will not get any kanji, or tribal tatts. Because if I’m not 110% sure of what the tatt really means, there’s no way I’m putting that on my body permanently.
ridicool on February 22nd, 2009 12:00 pm

Yes, “ironical” is a word, chowderheads.
Cyclonus on February 26th, 2009 2:52 pm

Love the ink. Thats what they get for not doing their own research. This is a good reason why you should have Asian friends.
Fusion Tee on March 12th, 2009 8:02 am

It is always a very good idea to do research when getting a language you DON’T speak or read tattooed on you. You would be surprised how many tattooists have no clue what the symbols mean, they just take the flash or the customers word that this is what it means.
How can I say...? - Page 2 - JapanForum.com on July 24th, 2009 11:29 pm

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