Scorpion Front Publishing will print “Tattoo Master Pinky Yun: The Don Ed Hardy Flash Collection” by author and American-Japanese tattooist Takahiro Kitamura in March 2023. The life and work of Pinky Yun, born in Canton, China, on October 29, 1927, are shown on 111 pages in a 90s-style graphic arrangement. Yun moved to Hong Kong in 1949, when communism seized power, and later worked in Macau, Taiwan, and Japan. He immigrated to the United States in 1972 and opened a tattoo parlor in Alameda, California. In 1981, Yun relocated to San Jose, California, working as a tattoo artist until 2009. He died on December 2, 2010. This book is set in San Jose, where the author Kitamura’s artistic reputation has been built, and Yun has contributed so much to the community and city. There would not be a new generation of tattooers without examining this master’s career and skill, a man renowned for his ability to freehand with both hands.

However, in prior generations and societies, immigrants were not always welcomed, valued, and respected as they should have been. Yun is an “unsung hero.” In contrast to Western tattooers, frequently documented in publications and passionately debated over time, Yun has been largely forgotten. According to legends Charlie Cartwright and Ed Hardy, Pinky Yun was one of his generation’s most remarkable. The author also describes how extraordinary the master was based on personal experience, in addition to the book’s “Legacies” chapter, which contains stories by Leo Zulueta, Jimmy Shy, and others. Doug Hardy scanned drawings and flash art from his father’s collection for this indispensable publication.

Photos courtesy of Doug Hardy