Tattoo You

I know I take the piss out of the dodgy English T-shirts I see on Tokyo's streets. In my opinion, if you're gonna buy a T-shirt/bag to parade around the joint, not knowing know what it says, then you're leaving yourself open to potential ridicule.

Same rules apply for any westerner who gets a tattoo of a kanji character but doesn't know what it means. Personally, I think kanji characters make the perfect tattoos - they are simple, bold and artistic (and damn sexy, but I won't go into that..)

Matt got one in February, the kanji for "Australia", which also means "Strength" and he made damn sure that that was one if its meanings before he permanently scarred his skin. Since he got it, many Japanese friends have seen it and crooned, "ooooh, Australia", like it was cool or something, but there was a general cacaphony of relieved sighs all round, let me tell you.

Echo Magazine did a bit of a study on the rampant mis-use and molestation of these characters by westerners. Ah, I do love some good cross-continental perversion!