The Tattoo

Two prisoners form a bond in this powerful novel that reveals the darker side of Hawaii. Ken Hideyoshi is the new guy in Halawa Correctional Institute. He's tough looking, a hard case. His cellmate is Cal—the mute tattoo artist of the prison who murdered his own wife. Ken, already inked with a gang symbol and a Japanese emblem, eventually asks Cal to create an elaborate 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. 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. As Cal's artistry takes shape on Ken's back, the story of Ken's life takes shape as well—a tale of hardship and abuse, ambition and proud samurai spirit, and, ultimately, his downfall, in this gritty novel about the other Hawai'i, the one tourists never get to see.