Posted on February 3, 2010 at 10:45pm

This is a quote from a Gchat conversation with my mom about my tattoo and what my jichan (grandpa) thinks about it:

you are made to so pretty and beautiful, the tatoo ruin your value. that’s what jicchan think
and only yakuza get tatoo

(Yakuza is the Japanese mafia.)

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  • jennifer
    my little obachan said the same thing when she saw mine- 'only yakuza get the tattoo....'
  • Annie
    I have two self-designed, personal tattoos, both in places that are (almost) never seen. Mom still hasn't seen the second. I plan on getting a third tattoo on my ankle and when I told her this, she said "Why don't you get a tattoo of your mother crying about you getting so many tattoos?"
  • kathlab
    "Why don't you get a tattoo of your mother crying about you getting so many tattoos?"
    hahahaha
    are you considering it?? :-)
  • Erica
    Does anyone even know what ethnocentric means? It means you think your culture's way of doing things is better than another culture. Get a dictionary.
  • hazelhearts
    haha it's so funny that moms write notes like this for things they buy! very alike to my mom too:
    http://hazelhearts.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/close-everything-when-im-gone/
  • Anon
    Yeah, some people are being utterly humorless about this in my opinion. Tattoos may not be socially acceptable in Japan, but they are certainly not disapproved of by all parents the world over, that definitely sounds ethnocentric. What I think part of the humor is, is a girl growing up in America, or similar western country, being told that a tattoo "ruins her value".
    I got a very pretty tattoo in college, a water-color like butterfly on my lower back. My mother's reaction was "oooh!". My father's reaction was "yuck!". Clearly there are no universal parental reactions to tattoos.
  • Sirhin
    My mom said almost the same thing about my tattoo... except we aren't Japanese so she omitted the whole "yakuza" part of it. Though what she said instead wasn't any better. My grandmother saw it in passing once while we were swimming and said something how the things girls do these days for beauty. O_o What?

    Now, I think she's still in denial... three years after I got it.
  • alicia
    brainless daughter? ANY other parent of ANY ethnicity? cmon people. talk about ethnocentrism! tattoos mean different things to different groups of people. i'm sure there are young people all over the world who disapprove of tattoos, just as there are parents all over who think they're great and/or have their own (google the Maori, for example). LIGHTEN UP.
  • kemrock
    I posted this and I think everyone is taking this WAY too seriously. I found it hilarious!!!
  • mp
    my mom said the same thing about a tattoo
  • Erica
    It's actually true though. In Japan only the Yakuza got tattoos so it's socially unacceptable to get a tattoo unless you wanna brand yourself as a crazy mafia person. Time is slowly eroding that image but it's still there. Hamasaki Ayumi got a tattoo too but for months she wear half-sleeve dresses and clothes to cover up the one she got on her back and in photoshoots sometimes and events she covered it up with makeup. I don't think it's atypical for your Japanese parents to be upset by it. I would be, too, as would any other parent of any ethnicity.
  • serbiz
    At least the mom could suggest a different trend for her beautiful (but brainless) daughter to follow.
  • Nate
    Frankly, her Jiichan isn't the only one. Most people in Japan feel the same. Kinda unfunny.
  • Your Hip Hapa
    Yakuza! That sounds like something my mother would say. Listen, I'd like to interview you. Drop me a line at watermelonsushi@me.com
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