As most of you know there is a trend in the US to get tattoos in Asian scripts. Is there a trend in Asia to get tattoos in English or other western languages.
Websites like http://www.engrish.com/ make it seem like there is a fair amount of fashion with poorly translated English phrases. Are there Japanese kids running around with strange English phrases tattooed on their bodies to go with the American kids with poorly worded Kanji tatoos?
Tattoos are not nearly as ubiquitous in most E. Asian countries
I’d love to see a Japaneese teenager on his 18th birthday. “Look at my tattoo, it says Loyal, Respectful, Honest in English.” Fast Foward a few years when he bumps into someone that can read english. “Ummm no, it says Sardine, Fudgsicle, Hot Dog”
Because of its very strong association with organised crime, tattoos are still very much taboo in Japanese society. People who have tattoos are forbidden entry to public baths and hot springs for instance. There are some people who have them for fashion reasons but they are, relatively speaking, very few.
I have a couple of Japanese tattoo magazines (“Tattoo Life”) and there seems to be a trend towards American-style tattooing right now. Lots of classic things like skulls and swallows, along with some “newer” stuff like words in huge gothic lettering. From my observations (as a technical writer, I notice strange things 
), the tattoos with English lettering are actually highly accurate. About 95% of the ones shown are written correctly, and the two or three remaining have slight errors (“fresh” for “flesh”, and so on). When it comes to written tattoos, I’d say our Japanese friends do more research than many of us North Americans.
I can think of a couple of possibilities to explain the accuracy (none of them very likely):
They are copies of popular tattoos seen in other magazines
The phrases are copied and pasted from pages on the internet, and then assigned a gothic font.
The tattoos were done in the US.
The tattoos were done by American-born artists in Japan.
I suspect the real reason is that English, both written and spoken, is better understood in Japan than Japanese is understood in the US (especially among tattoo artists).
Not universally so. A small design will generally not gather much attention, while a large Yakuza-style suit is sometimes enough to get you banned from a hotel. And westerners easily slip through the cracks because the bath owners understand that a tattoo on a foreigner is usually a superficial fashion statement rather than a sign of gang affiliation.
Plus they are often impressed to read the words “strnegth eaternaty powder” in their native language. 
The Japanese word for tattoo is 入墨 irezumi and is used to refer to Japanese-style tattoos. Because of the strong relationship with yakuza, they will get you banned from public baths or from my golf club.
I’ve got a number of Western friends with tattoos, and some have had problems in public baths or pools and others have not. Small tattoos won’t and foreigners visiting over seem to be OK. I don’t have any Japanese friends with tattoos, so I don’t have personal experience with that combination.
I’ve seen a few Japanese women with small tattoos. Mostly this was in Western bars and occasionally outside, but usually in places where they could be covered up easily. You can see a few Japanese men with tattoo.
Japanese will use タトゥ katakana pronounced “tatu” for Western style tattoos. Here are some tattoo magazines. I have yet to see a Japanese person using kanji as a tattoo.
I don’t know that much about tattoos, but my assessment is:
“They are copies of popular tattoos seen in other magazines” → Likely.
“The phrases are copied and pasted from pages on the internet, and then assigned a gothic font.” → Or from Japanese to English dictionaries.
“The tattoos were done in the US.” For a small percentage of people, but not many.
“The tattoos were done by American-born artists in Japan.” Again, possible but not too likely.
“I suspect the real reason is that English, both written and spoken, is better understood in Japan than Japanese is understood in the US (especially among tattoo artists).” Actually, it’s probably about the same percent chance, e.g., close to zero that you would get fluent speakers in either category. You’re more likely to find tattoo artists in Japan who trained in the States than vice-versa.
English is much easier to write than kanji, especially for non-natives of the respective languages.
And to answer the question in the OP. No, you do not see many Asians running around with English tattoos, and I’ve yet to see another language used.
Thanks for the answers.