kawaii ink

Tatowier magazine has a write up this month I did of the Hello Kitty convention tattoo shop and kawaii ink. I am usually writing about old timers with 30- 50 year careers for these mags, so it was actually nice to interview someone closer to my age for a change!
I wrote about this before, but people were lining up from 4am to get tattooed with Mario Desa Hello Kitty flash -- even having a tattoo booth at the MOCA is incredible. Most of the artists are well known guys, and one commented that he was really overwhelmed at how positive the whole experience was; seriously, couldn't agree more. I personally haven't been into Harajuku fashion since I was a teen and had rainbow hair and decora jerseys, piercings and so on, (although I still love the look) but it is really easy to get into the positivity and creativity of the people in this scene...and realistically these kind of motifs far eclipse trad Japanese tattoos in ubiquity these days.
thanks always Dirk at Tatowier!

PS if you want to get saccharine ink while in Japan, the place to go to Chopstick in Osaka (female artists Kyon, and Nattsu)