Re: tats in Japan - there's still a lot of stigma attached to tattoos here, although I speak from the point of view of someone living in the countryside - big city folk may be more open minded. Here, though, you'd seriously struggle to get any kind of respectable job (read:suit-wearing) if you had any tattoos at all. You couldn't work in a convenience store or any job where the public might see you, either. I did once go to a bath house in Ehime prefecture where a very, very heavily tattood chap wandered into the sauna flanked by two rather burly men. He turned out to be a fairly decent guy, and very chatty, but there's no doubt he was a Yak. (There were lots of "no tattoos" signs up, but who the heck is going to tell him and his minders to leave?)
Back on topic - the mini is another fine example of why Milosh is acknowledged as the master of skin tones. (Well, I acknowledge it, anyway...) Interesting choice of sculpt to do a Japan themed design on. It works really well
