The Last Dragon

December 5th, 2006   My punkrock sister and brother-in-law took me to a tattoo convention a few years back. It was exactly what you would expect, but out of the ink-stained sea arose a bamboo platform where a Japanese master artist inked a client – tap tap tapping a needle-pointed bamboo shoot into his skin. A huge crowd engulfed the platform in a sea of Rockabillies, Motorcycle ZZTop’ers, Gamers, Skaters, Stoners, Rockers, Gangsters... and one whiteboy from the valley with a dream of a Kung Fu marking... Which brings us to present time. My ideal tat: A dragon on the inside of my left arm, just like how David Carradine in “Kung Fu” used the inside of his forearms to lift a scalding cauldron as the ultimate test of his strength... (thanks to Ryan for that one). ...slowly tapped into my skin by a Japanese master artist, preferably while in Japan-- BUT... The other night, we were hanging out with my punkrock siblings, who you know from the first paragraph, and their Japanese friend, Shiho. Well, burst my wonton-bubble, but Shiho tells me the two following things: 1.) Only the Yakuza can get you access to that kind of tattoo’ing. For those of you who don’t know, Yakuza is the Japanese mafia. (for a cinematic romp with the Yakuza, watch the ill-fitting black-white cop buddy drama of Wesley Snipes and Sean Connery in “Rising Sun”); 2.) It takes up to 14 days to get that kind of tattoo! POP! The bubble has broken. My dreams of a grandiose, traditional Japanese dragon forever marking my body may just stay a dream. Perhaps it is better that way. ..