The Tattoo [Paperback]

Chris McKinney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001

“A book about ‘the sins of the fathers.’ . . . A gritty, troubling book.”—The Honolulu Advertiser

“The other Hawai’i, the one tourists never get to see.”—Ian MacMillan

Ken Hideyoshi is the new guy in Halawa Correctional Institute. He’s tough looking, a hard case, observes his cellmate Cal—the mute tattoo artist of the prison, a wife murderer. SYN, a gang symbol, is tattooed on his hand, and he has a Japanese emblem inscribed on his left shoulder. He asks Cal for a tattoo on his back, in kanji script, of Musashi’s Book of the Void.

While he is being worked on, he tells Cal his life story, a tale of hardship and abuse. Motherless, he was raised by a distant father, a Vietnam War veteran, in the impoverished hinterlands. In his teen years he hung out with the native Hawaiian gangs and was drawn into the Hawaiian-Korean underworld of strip bars and massage parlors. His ambition and proud samurai spirit seem, inevitably, to lead to his downfall.

Chris McKinney is of Korean, Japanese, and Scottish descent. He was born in Honolulu and grew up in Kahaluu. He portrays the native Hawaiian experience from the inside, where children of mixed ethnicity grow up far from the clear water and pristine beaches of the rich visitors’ resorts.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—This is the story of one prisoner's life told to another. The listener is Cal, a white, onetime racist tattoo artist who lost his voice when his throat was cut in a prison fight. He is serving a long sentence on one of the Hawaiian Islands. Over the years, he has become the kind of man other prisoners feel safe talking to—partly because he can't repeat what they say, but also because they trust the sense of peace he has found in his own silence and the time he has served. Cal's new cellmate is Ken, a Japanese man raised in Hawaii-and an outsider like Cal. He has Cal give him a large, symbolic tattoo on his back as he tells his rich though troubled tale. Ken recounts his childhood friendship with a doomed, modern-day Hawaiian prince and the decaying world he ruled. He found himself the muscle man for a bar-owning, prostitution-ring-running, loan-sharking Korean woman. Falling in love with her daughter was just one of the reasons that he ended up behind bars. Teens will appreciate the many deep, complicated relationships. The language and realities are rough, but there is much compassion and wisdom to balance them.—Will Marston, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Mutual Pub Co (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566472474
• ISBN-13: 978-1566472470
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.9 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,889,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing and captivating read, September 29, 2002

By 

Robert (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tattoo (Paperback)

I picked up The Tattoo after reading "The Queen of Tears", McKinney's second book, which was also great. The Tattoo, however, I could not put down. The illustrations of the complexities of race in Hawai'i, the depth of the characters portrayed in the novel and the profound humanity of the story all make you wish there were another volume to the story. And indeed there is, but it is only in the imagination; and in the ways you see yourself and the people you know through the eyes of the characters in this book. I am not from Hawaii, but having visited the book certainly revealed a side hidden from the view of most tourists. But much more important in my reading was the way I could relate to these characters--the way I found myself hoping for the best, but as often happens in the real world, having to settle for a less-than-ideal reality. This is perhaps what is most impressive about The Tattoo, the care you develop for the characters is not simply rewarded with mindless hopefullness, success and a "happy ending".
In my mind, McKinney has succeeded in developing a compelling, real story occupied by true characters, fictitious yet in many ways more real than we normally care to acknowledge in our daily lives. I found myself thinking and reflecting about the book for at least a week after I had finished reading it. It is a tragic lovestory, one of adventure, friendship and the complexities of family. It also, I believe, opens one up to the possibilities of life, both wonderful and heartbreaking. After all, what would one be without the other.
My thanks to the author for a book I'll never forget.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small world, September 28, 2003

By 

Jere H. Krischel (La Canada, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tattoo (Paperback)

The Tattoo is certainly a work of fiction, which takes liberties with reality (composite characters built from several real people, scenes exaggerated and dramatized for effect), but it is based on real people and their attitudes about life, and captures a genuine flavor of hawaii that strikes a resounding chord. I used to spend new year's with the family the story is based on, both in kaneohe and wahiawa, so I can't pretend to be unbiased in my affection for the characterizations of these people that I knew from my childhood, but I think in spite of the fact I was familiar with the "back-story" it was a novel that stood well on it's own.

For all the press and attention hawaii gets for hula skirts, ukuleles and luaus, it's refreshing to have a "authentic" look at local life and culture. There are real people behind the tourist photos, and real lives that don't fit the typical image of hawaii. Although some of the other reviewers found the tale a bit depressing, I must say that in the end I found more hope than tragedy in this cautionary tale.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, January 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tattoo (Paperback)

Being local japanese born and raised in country, the main character Ken is eerily similar to my life. Not being able to relate to the stereotype mentioned in the beginning of the book, I felt as though my life experiences was being described through the narration of Ken's story. As for Mapuana's review, she is entitled to her opinion, but I am an example of someone who has been in jail and can read college level books. This is a piece of true Hawaii, the dark side, how noone wants to revel in it because it is not associated with the word paradise, and where atleast one person can say they have lived in the shoes of Ken Hideyoshi.