The Tattoo Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)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.

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Product Description:

"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.

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