Our heavily inked readers have sent in a plethora of pictures detailing the game-related tattoos with which they have adorned themselves.

As expected, they run the gamut from impressive to slightly baffling.

Magnet Genocide wears Chun Li on his arm, Rob Thrift has matching mega man and heat man, Melissa Stiltner sent us her impressive Master Sword back piece - she has Okami piece on the way.

Nick Purdy sent us pics of his girlfriend Robyn's Super Mario Galaxy star, Sebastian Zethraeus wears a foxy MGS 4 insignia, An anonymous reader has the Sith code in UV ink.

Zack Thar sent his pal Davis Peng's tattoo of Yoshi, Joey Crundwell wears Starman Deluxe from EarthBound, Greg Doom has Gutsman, Elecman, Megaman, and Bullet Bill on his leg, Dustin Kurtz has Bioshock-inspired wrist chains and Cale Bradbury is forever maked with a Weighted Companion Cube.

Finally, Suicide Ninja keeps it in the family with his tat of Lulu from Final Fantasy X. His Daughter has Rikku from FFX2.

Thanks for sharing, one and all.

I hope you all enjoy looking through these galleries as much as I enjoyed putting them together!
(Just a head's up: I have added ALL of your photos - at least all the people who sent me their country - but you may not see them on the main gallery page, as it will only display the first fifty. But don't worry! Click through the gallery, and you'll find your photo!)

To check out the desks and gaming setups of big names in gaming like David Jaffe, Sid Meier, and Penny Arcade's "Gabe" and "Tycho", visit the original gallery: Work and Play: A Peek Inside the Lives of Gaming's Greatest (with updates always being added, including new photos this week from Tommy Tallarico and Ted Brown, Lead Level Designer for Buzz Monkey Software.).

NORTH AMERICA

EUROPE

ASIA

OCEANIA

SOUTH AMERICA

Who said that he was fine with his son playing Bioshock because it might lead him to “think and have him challenge his ideas”?

What you know about us: I live in Japan, Crecente is a pirate, McWhertor needs to shave, Fahey gives away cookies to strangers, Plunkett has "LOVE" "HATE" tattoos, Mark Wilson's real name is actually Wilson Mark and Flynn is always five minutes late. Always.

But, what do we know about you? Not much! So, we want to learn all about whoever the hell reads this site and give you an iPod Shuffle (color of your choice) in the process. Hit up our survey, answer our questions and enter your email address by March 5th. All your info will be kept strictly private with data only distributed in anonymous aggregated. You won't receive any emails or sales pitches or crap like that. If you don't want to enter your email address, that's fine. Still do fill out the survey (though, you won't be eligible for the iPod Shuffle).

So go ahead, click here and take the survey, which takes less that two minutes. Here are our contest rules. Brian Ashcraft

Earlier, we posted a letter from a reader detailing what went on during the Japan PS3 launch. Homeless people lined up for consoles as well as select Chinese who then turned around and tried to sell the machines. The story got substantial internet play, including being picked up by the BBC, who interviewed me as well. But, was the coverage racist?

We don't like to air every email we get that disagrees with our banter, but this is an email which didn't only agree with us, but the reader who sent in the original story. So, to be fair, it will get a public airing (the identity of this person shall remain private). I've already contacted this individual, stating my position. What's yours?

Hit the jump for not one, but two emails from this individual. Brian Ashcraft

Dear Sir,

I am a resident of Japan and I have just read a BBC News article quoting you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6142576.stm

I was dismayed by the BBC's portrayal and focus on what seemed like Osaka's Chinese community being no more than immoral purchasers and this being a major problem in all of Japan.

Before I blame you (I have already emailed the bbc with thoughts about their reporting), I would like to know your thoughts about the article and what you really meant if you feel that the BBC misquoted you.

I feel that the article:

1/ Makes Chinese out to be the same as Yakuza and bad businessmen.
2/ That chinese buying playstations for others as a service and for an extra cost rather than waiting themselves is legally and morally wrong.
3/ that chinese were quoted by yourself as a small observation by yourself IN OSAKA and the BBC have made this look like its a nationwide epidemic.
4/ That you didnt aknowledge that although many Chinese, including elderly ones, were buying the product, that they were just as likely to be buying them for legit reasons, like buying them for their family and friends. Your comments were just opinions without any concrete proof or evidence.
5/ That Japanese are just as liable to to do the same thing, either for good or bad reasons so the quoting of ethnicity, ability to use japanese was not needed.
6/ that you really meant that you believed that Ps3s were being bought by any potential customer for "scalping" purposes and that any extra information attributed to this was not newsworthy.

etc

As you may know, the Chinese community in Japan have been demonised in the Japanese media from time to time, either by polititians such as shintaro ishihara, and to right wing articles in various publications. Therefore I would ask for your clarifications on this matter.

Thank you for your time.

...and this as well...

Dear Sir,

Furthermore, in order to highlight how the article could be inferred as "racist", please look at a doctored edition of the article. The word "Chinese" has been replaced with "Black" and the setting changed to America. this is purely fictitious and in no way implies that black people are criminals or untrustworthy. They have been chosen as they are often seen to also be stigmatized by the white majority and said to have poor English/education backgrounds, be poorer than the majority of whites etc:

" "The PlayStation 3 goes on sale in the US on Friday
PlayStation 3 consoles advertised as used are appearing for sale in American shops as well as online auctions.

They are being sold for up to four times the retail price of the console, which went on sale in the USA last Saturday for about 270.

There are also reports that homeless people were paid to queue for the console on behalf of people now selling them on at a higher price.

The product launch is one of the most crucial in Sony's history.

Thousands of people queued for many hours in cities across the USA on Saturday and many people went home empty-handed.

One PS3 with a 60GB hard drive, which would have cost about $500 ( 270) in American stores, was on sale on Monday on the auction site eBay for an asking price of $2,300 ( 1,200).

Other PS3s were attracting bids starting from $600 ( 313) up to $1,475 ( 771).

Brian Ashcraft, an editor for gaming website Kotaku in the USA, said: "I witnessed homeless people waiting in line as well as a high number of BLACK customers."

He said he had heard similar stories from other shops around New York and in LA.

A Kotaku reader, Dirk Benedict, contacted the website about the launch day at flagship New York store, Radio Shack.

"The first buyers of PS3 were largely elderly BLACK men and young BLACK women with shaky ENGLISH language skills," he wrote.

"Opportunistic WHITE businessmen have the largest presence, hiring poor BLACK men and women to wait in line for a PS3."

Mr Benedict said the BLACK men and women were then delivering the consoles to WHITE men, who were paying them up to 90 for queuing.

He wrote: "Sony should be scolded for staging a national launch event with 80,000 units.

"An extreme lack of supply ignited an extreme surge of demand - that of which poor BLACKS and opportunistic WHITES took full advantage of."

Kotaku reports that PS3 consoles advertised as used are now being sold for 144,900 yen ( 645) in some American shops."

That sound like it could be newsworthy of an average newspaper to you?

Yours Sincerely,

Yo, peeps. Up in da Ko to da tak to da you, we all be mackin' some love on Gamestop. Sometimes, we sparks a blizz, puts on da bling and we just go mackin' on down to Gamestop. "Yo, foh shizz, lez get da PS3 pre-order IZ-ON," we be sayin' to the Gamestop peeyimp behind the counter. "Sold out... BEEYOTCH!" he responds. "Hell NO, negro!" I'm all like, because we both be bein' black brothas. "Help an African-Irishman albino brudda out..." And den he all be like BLSADJDFSKKDJSK;LDSKDLS;F...

Sorry. I've lost the ability to even pretend to speak the ridiculous wanna-be ebonical patois of my more slope-browed gaming brethren. The joke's not worth the self loathing.

Seriously. I know gaming is the sport of white boy nerds emulating minority culture the only way they know how: endlessly babbling at the mouth in a completely insulting dialect of so-called pimp speak. But first of all, gamers, if you had any respect for yourselves, you'd have left that shit back in the early 90's along with your parachute pants. And second? Gamer pimp speak has about as much in common with real pimp (in which I, of course, am fluent) as Pig Latin does to Latin. What you're speaking? Gibberish; another completely made-up language like Klingon, Elvish or French.

So what's this post about? Glad you asked. Kotakuite Ryfael forwarded us an absolutely horrible email that Gamestop.com sent him. We swear to god, this is the subject:

GET YO ASS TO GS AND TRADE IN DA GAMES

And if that brings you in to Gamestop, let me know your email address; I'll send you a similarly worded pamphlet on the benefits of chemical castration, sure to hook you in.

To be fair, that subject coming from an official mailing of a major company is pretty unbelievable. Ryfael may have been pulling our leg. Can anyone confirm? Florian Eckhardt

Going by the random IMs and emails, it would seem that most of our readers were at least 14 years-old. That, or inmates. Not so! Apparently, we beam into grade schoolers. Inspired by yesterday's Wii post, ten year-old Anthony sent us a couple hand-drawn pictures of the Nintendo Wii. We think they're pretty charming in a serial killer sort of way. I mean, he is ten. We think.

Hit the jump for the other two. But, before that, and for my own piece of mind, I'd love to know how old everyone is out in Kotaku-land. I'm 28, Mike's 19, Florian's 39 and a half, Eliza is I-have-no-clue and Crecente is 53. You? Brian Ashcraft

Eds Note: Ashcraft lied. Crecente is actually only 52.

Rhys Hale wrote us with this charmingly wrought diagram of the medical consequences wreaked by PlayStation ergonomics. Right click, select "View Image" for PlayStation Claw in it's full glory.

Also known as Onanist Claw. Florian Eckhardt

Nothing important is going on in gaming today, so why not post more gaming related paraphernalia no one gives a flying crap about. In response to our earlier post on Bubble Bobble coasters Kotakuite Ryan sent us these pics of some other game related coasters he did. Pretty snazzy... one for each beer I have open at once! Thanks, Ryan. Florian Eckhardt

PS: Oh, right. And Sony announced that they'd be cutting by 4/5ths the number of PS3s they'll be supplying to the States at launch. Whatever. Yawn.

I think this is my favorite bit of gamer themed street art we've ever posted. I like to think that this is less deliberate art than a miraculous coincidence — the sole remaining piece of a Byzantine mosaic's millennia-spanning decay. The rusted pipes give it an air of almost Turkish squalor.

Unfortunately, Etherfreak dashed my own feverish imaginings. It's actually from my home town! "I found this little megaman stuck onto the back of an art store on mass ave in boston. looks like it was composed of many little "pixel" squares separately adhered to the wall. Funny thing is, about an hour after snapping this shot I walked by again, only to see a couple dudes pulling out camera phones and shrieking in revelrous glee at their discovery. Something makes me think that you guys have probably already seen this one. Just in case you haven't...."

I don't think we have (who can tell with our search system so hopelessly broken?), but anything this cool deserves to be posted again, and I deserve to be paid for posting it. Florian Eckhardt

The Amazing Mr. Pee — a Wildeian wit — sent us this shot of some graffiti in Melbourne, New Zealand. That's not just any Link you're seeing there: that's Link from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap!

Mr. Pee explains:

It's actually been made out of Carlton draught beer coasters from a pub that have been painted and stuck on the wall. Found near Swanston Street, near RMIT university in Melbourne, Australia.

Is it still graffiti if it's just been taped to the wall? Oh, no matter, it's still cool. Any Melbournians willing to go out to Swanston street and have their hot girlfriends pose naked next to Link, perhaps bent over in an accomodating position? Let us know! Florian Eckhardt

Kotakuite Michael C. forwarded us this message from the Rainbow Six Vegas viral game, Save Vegas.

I never follow these virals. It always takes place on a website designed in the same style as various Geocities My Little Pony pages in the mid-90's. The one of the writing is always pretty close to a tone of complete hysteria, reading something like what a sugar-junkie might write while having a corkscrew inserted up his urethra.

According to the website, "The purpose of this site is to alert elements of United States counter-terror forces, specifically the elite team that may be known as "Rainbow Six", to unusual events that I am monitoring in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is my belief that their help will be needed in the coming days." At least this one's pretty transparent about its connection, as opposed to another stupid I Love Bees mind fuck. Florian Eckhardt

PS: Anyone who unbuckled for the promised "graphic and shocking images" might as well pull their pants back up above their knees. The most shocking one I saw involved a booyeahing jock drinking a Rolling Rock nursed in an inflatable sheep's anus.

Mmm. Xbox Fruit Roll Ups. "Every day glow green snack has a hint hidden under the wrapper." And a strawberry red ring of death inside!

And, courtesy of Crecente's wit, some added thoughts:

Please let this be a excellent photoshop and not Microsoft's retina-searing move into the faux fruit candy market. Our tipster tells us that each Xbox 360 Fruit Roll comes with a snazzy game tip:

Sample hint:

In Saint's Row you can get more hos if you gut-shot the pimp straight off the bat and steal his bitches.

Just kidding, here's the equally dubious "real" sample hint:

Amped 3: Its style, not substance that counts in Amped 3. Learn to slow down your trick massive multipliers.

Thanks, John! And Crecente, for letting me be paid largely for his work! Florian Eckhardt

Kotakuite Robin was doing some surfing, when he or she (who can tell within the context of an email signature?) found this fairly funny comic strip called God's Plan The vast, cosmic implications of deity combined with a fun gaming bent! I'm not really sure if steps 1 - 4 are necessary for a decent high score, though. Florian Eckhardt

God's Plan [Duhh.no]

Oh great. Ash has done it again. By plucking something from the tips jar (in his ineffable laziness) that no one else thought was even interesting enough to post, he's caused an avalanche of similar crap to come rumbling down on the site, to bury you all.

First, it was those stupid gamer license plates. Now? It's Space Invaders. Seeing Ash's earlier terrible, completely lazy post on the subject, Kotakuite Stefan writes:

just wanted to show you this poster i found at the praterstern trainstation in vienna...

maybe it's interesting to know to that there're elections coming an i found this one on a big VP (austrian people's party)advertisement.

Just so. Of course, if you think about it, Space Invaders is pretty racist... human racist. An armada of squid-like aliens destroying earth in utter extraterrestrial conviction of their own genetic superiority? They'd come right after Hitler in my deliberations for anti-racist spokesmen.

But I suppose the Austrians would know better than me, having had to deal with Hitler — and maybe Space Invaders for all I know about the Second World War — firsthand. Florian Eckhardt

Space Invaders Against Racism [Stefan Braunstein]

Jonathan B. of the Gamebang Blog wrote us in about a curious Xbox 360 College Tour that occurred at his university on the fifth anniversary of September 11th... right across from a Red Cross Blood Drive.

The Xbox 360 college tour started today at my campus right across a 9/11 blood drive. With girls in skimpy clothes and free shirts not supporting the blood drive but, the xbox 360 and mountain dew. Who starts anything fun on 9/11? I wrote a open letter to the Xbox 360 team on how crappy they are for doing this on my blog and I'm sending the same words to the opinion section of my college newspaper. I would be really grateful if you showed this letter on your site or at least told they many fans like myself ofKotaku how dumb the Xbox 360 Marketing team is.

Although I sympathize with Jonathan on the aspect of setting up the tour across from a blood drive (what a bonehead move), I have to respond to his assertion that it's somehow in bad taste to do anything fun or celebratory on September 11th.

The culture of fear we live in just has to stop. There's exactly two groups of people who profit from fear: terrorists and politicians. An eternal day of mourning and depression isn't anything the victims of September 11th would have wanted; it's what those who would like us to give up our liberties want.

You want to stick it to Al Qaeda? You want to pay tribute to the thousands of Americans who died in the World Trade Center? Then celebrate how wonderful it is to be an American on September 11th. And I can't think of anything more American than sitting back, sipping a beer and playing some video games while scantly-clad women prance sexily about you. That's the sort of thing that causes Al Qaeda aneurysms. Florian Eckhardt

The Xbox 360 Marketing Team is Incredibly Stupid and maybe a little curious about same sex relationships [Gamebang]

As seen on the recent 1UP Show , at an interview with the Insomniac team, I give you... the PS3 dev kit.

Wow. Looks professional. Is that tape? Thanks, Wrecluse! Florian Eckhardt

Duct tape solves all woes. It's great in special ops missions, either as a make-shift gag, pair of handcuffs, or just to patch open the long, oozing slit that an enemy bayonet just tore up your belly. As all men know, Apollo 11 was only able to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere by patching a hole in the shuttle with duct tape. And so on.

Reader Ally K. wrote us with pictures of an extraordinarily ugly, yet also extraordinarily handy DS game wallet he made out of the sticky, silvery stuff. Ally writes:

I saw the post awhile back on a DIY DS game case thingy, and thought to myself, "hey... carrying those huge game cases around is a pain in the anus. I need a case for all my DS games." However, rather than go out and buy such a case, I made my own. The pictures are attached. I know, I know. You're going to say, "But Ally... won't the sticky crap from the duct tape get all over your games?" In fact, it will not. The inner portion of every game pocket is made of a single piece of duct tape, such that no sticky surface even gets NEAR my precious games. This can be noted in the last photograph. The case is very close to the same size as my DS Lite, such that they can be carried together with little hassle. I wanted to put the two little squarish ovals on the front of it, but it just didn't work out. Oh well. Anyway... enjoy!

Which just goes to show that the cheap-ass prevails. Florian Eckhardt

After your post about Ashcraft's use of PLAYSTATION instead of Playstation I slowly began to lose my mind. I hadn't noticed it before, but now I couldn't un-notice. PLAYSTATION was every-fucking-where. To solve this problem, I modified a Greasemonkey script to replace every occurrence of 'PLAYSTATION' with 'Playstation'. I posted it to Userscripts.org:

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/5429

It works great. All is right with the world again. Now I am going to
make a version that will replace Crecente's posts with ones that don't
read like they were written by a robot.

I can't comment on that last one, because Crecente's my boss, and more importantly, he's got to okay 1000 euros worth of expenses this afternoon for my trip to Leipzig. But if you manage to write that one, that's probably a good first step towards aceing the Turing Test. Florian Eckhardt

Gamer love doesn't merely cuddle close to the homerotic. After we posted the tattoo of a Hot Topic employee's Luigi tattoo and explained that it was a testament to his passion for his best friend (their love ripped asunder by different college acceptance letters), Kotakuite David S. wrote us:

My wife, Erin, and I got married on April 23rd this year. I"m a huge gamer, and she actually reviews games for a living! (yeah, I know, it's really sweet). For our evening party, rather than a dance or something humiliating like that, we went to Dave & Buster's for our after-party to celebrate that night with our friends. So we could be seen, we made these really nifty t-shirts. I'm the one on the left, if you didn't figure that one out. :p

Too bad. The one on the right is rub-a-dub-dub. Anyway, nothing says 'hep couple' like a husband and wife dressed in matching t-shirts. And when those t-shirts are gaming themed? Le Mario Juste! Florian Eckhardt

I went to Hot Topic the other day and when the cashier turn around I saw this tattoo on his arm. The story behind it is that his best friend left for collage and they thought it would be kewl to have the same tattoo. When they got to the place, they decided on a video game theme. So his best friend has Mario and he has Luigi.

It's really nice when lovers decide to eternally brand their skin together, isn't it? This, of course, is not the most skilled rendition in flesh and ink that we've ever seen of Luigi, but we're always happy to post a touching tale of two Brokeback Gamers and a love that conquers all. Florian Eckhardt