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Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Uyoku Ex-Tattooist

Rad bicycle ride!

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I taught a lesson in Hibiya, and thought I'd take a little detour on the way home, changing up the 15 minute ride into a 4 hour one. Totally worth it. Let's go Chevy!

Checked out the KTM dealer for my new ride. Give it time though, and send some positive thought my way. I'm talking about The Laws of Attraction people. Moving on.

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Kiba is a port part of town, with one of the best venue / clubs in the world. Studio Coast / Ageha is just down the road from this trippy office building.

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Who's playing but my favorite group (when I was in High School). I didn't have any Pumpkins on my iPod, so I went with some enka about drinking oneself to death instead.

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And then there was this.

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Old abandoned right wing nationalist (Uyoku) trucks. I had to take some pictures.

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Then I noticed someone inside one of them. I had to talk to him.

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Mr. Tamaoka is a heavily tattooed nationalist. I immediately asked him if it was ok for me to take pictures of his old trucks. I also asked if he was uyoku. I got yesses for both these questions, and we chatted for about 20 minutes about uyoku viewpoints, tattoos, and how hot the weather is. I was particularly interested in his tattoo life. He hopped out the truck and went to get some of his sketches.

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Yeah, he used to be a tattoo artist, using the more traditional tebori style. His clientèle were mainly people who would get full body tattoos done. Make your own conclusions.

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Whoah.

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He had the Japanese style body suit. In a jinbei (Japanese style shorts and shirt), it's all hidden.

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Some of his brothers who he tattooed. Not sure if he meant biological brothers, or something else.

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Leaving him to his dinner, next stop was...

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a Tezuko themed...

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windmill,

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atomic bomb memorials,

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the 2010 fish winners,

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fish,

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And a half built Tokyo Sky Tree.

Seriously, if you live in Tokyo you need to invest in a decent bicycle, and just ride for a day or two a month.

If you are interested in the knowing more about the Uyoku, check out this rad interview from Tokyo Damage Report.

3 comments:

  1. Getting a tattoo from that guy probably would have been the coolest souvenir ever.



    Also, what happened to that "super post" that covers teaching in Japan? This is nonsense, I want my money back.

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  2. Great post - it's good to be in a position to get that sort of story, and then to be able to share it.

    Nice work.

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  3. Really interesting. What gorgeous sketches of him!

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