British people say “People with tattoos are the kindest” – is this hard for Japanese people to understand? Multiple game characters on arms and legs | Hint-Pot

When I talk to foreigners, I am often surprised by cultural differences. Julian Domanski from the UK has tattoos of Japanese game characters on his arms and legs. Tattoos are popular overseas and are not difficult to get, but Japanese people have an image of being “scary”, so many people are hesitant to get them. “I think people with tattoos are the kindest people in the world,” says Julian, and we spoke to him in detail.

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During college, I played Mario Kart on my roommate’s “practice machine”

Julian is from Birmingham, England, and says he was fascinated with Japanese games from an early age, especially Nintendo games.

I got my first tattoo when I was 19 years old.

On my right arm, I got characters from the Super Metroid game for the Super Nintendo released in 1994. The game features the main character Samus Aran, the small spaceship “Starship,” and boss characters.

“It was released 30 years ago. Characters gather in a space-like background. I like the art of this game and thought it would make a good tattoo, so I got it.”

It took a total of one and a half years to complete his first tattoo. “I was a university student and didn’t have much money, so I only met with the tattoo artist once in January. The session lasted three hours and cost 200 pounds (about 30,000 yen at the time). It took a total of 31 hours. It cost me about 300,000 yen.”

Next, I tattooed a Spiky Shell, an item that appears in the Mario Kart series, on the inside of my right ankle.

“My college roommate was training to be a tattoo artist, and I got the treatment in my room.”

And on the left calf is Amaterasu, a character from Capcom’s PlayStation 2 game “Okami,” released in 2006.

“Okami in particular is beautiful, like an ukiyo-e print. It’s not as beautiful as a real ukiyo-e print, but I liked the image of it.”

The kanji for “Okami” in Japanese is included, so even those who are unfamiliar with the game may be interested. “Two weeks ago, someone called out to me at the supermarket, ‘Oh, it’s Amaterasu.’ I couldn’t hear her at first because I was wearing headphones, but then someone tapped me on the shoulder,” he said.