Art attack

Accused of breaking Aichi Prefecture’s rather long-winded ‘government ordinance aimed at providing youth with a wholesome upbringing’, two men in their early 20s have been arrested for tattooing underage girls.

Both Kiyoe Namikawa and Yusuke Ushijima have admitted to the allegations, which involve the latter tattooing a 16-year-old’s wrist and the former painstakingly etching a heart and cross above the breast of a 15-year-old junior high school student.

Taking a slightly different approach than Japan’s more traditional tattooists, the two budding artists created their masterpieces with a safety pin, a needle and a few dabs of ink. One of them attempting to explain his behaviour and at the same promote his talents by boasting, “She asked us to do it because it looked cool.”

However a rumour that the young men were all set to give the two lucky ladies cutting edge and as-cool-as-can-be anchors on their forearms has yet to be confirmed.