U.P. John
03-02-07, 09:30 PM
'CHI-TONW' tattoo lawsuit filed
By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 1, 2007, 9:08 PM CST
Michael Duplessis loves Chicago so much that he wanted its nickname tattooed on his chest.
But the idea went terribly awry in a North Side tattoo parlor: He left with the word "CHI-TONW" inked into his skin where "CHI-TOWN" should have been.
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Now Duplessis is suing the business and the tattoo artist for monetary damages in the 2005 mess after suffering what he says in his lawsuit was "emotional distress from public ridicule."
"It was so embarrassing," Duplessis, 40, said Thursday from his home on the Northwest Side. "It was on my chest, and it was spelled wrong. I had to deal with all the people teasing me about it."
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 13 in Cook County Circuit Court, names Jade Dragon Tattoo & Body Piercing, 5331 W. Belmont Ave. It also named artist Sam Hacker and contractor Mad Hacker Inc. as defendants.
Included in the lawsuit is a drawing of the tattoo Duplessis said he wanted. It shows the word "CHI-TOWN" above an image of the John Hancock Center. The mechanic paid $250 for the tattoo on April 1, 2005, according to the suit.
Duplessis signed a release, but the defendants modified it once the error occurred by writing "chi-tonw" across the top of the form, according to the lawsuit.
Joseph "Fat Joe" Scapini, the owner of the tattoo store, did not return calls for comment Thursday. Neither did Duplessis' lawyer John O. Noland Jr.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of negligence and asks for actual damages and attorney fees. It says Duplessis "endured pain and suffering" from a procedure to fix the misspelled tattoo, in addition to a "loss of self-esteem and psychological pain."
Duplessis refused to say whether the tattoo had been fixed, but the lawsuit said he "will continue to be injured and disfigured and to suffer in the future." The suit did not say when the procedure occurred to fix the tattoo.
In a past Tribune interview, Scapini said he started Jade Dragon Tattoo in 1980. He said in 1997 that the store performed thousands of tattoos a month with more than a dozen artists.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/)
By Emma Graves Fitzsimmons
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 1, 2007, 9:08 PM CST
Michael Duplessis loves Chicago so much that he wanted its nickname tattooed on his chest.
But the idea went terribly awry in a North Side tattoo parlor: He left with the word "CHI-TONW" inked into his skin where "CHI-TOWN" should have been.
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Now Duplessis is suing the business and the tattoo artist for monetary damages in the 2005 mess after suffering what he says in his lawsuit was "emotional distress from public ridicule."
"It was so embarrassing," Duplessis, 40, said Thursday from his home on the Northwest Side. "It was on my chest, and it was spelled wrong. I had to deal with all the people teasing me about it."
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 13 in Cook County Circuit Court, names Jade Dragon Tattoo & Body Piercing, 5331 W. Belmont Ave. It also named artist Sam Hacker and contractor Mad Hacker Inc. as defendants.
Included in the lawsuit is a drawing of the tattoo Duplessis said he wanted. It shows the word "CHI-TOWN" above an image of the John Hancock Center. The mechanic paid $250 for the tattoo on April 1, 2005, according to the suit.
Duplessis signed a release, but the defendants modified it once the error occurred by writing "chi-tonw" across the top of the form, according to the lawsuit.
Joseph "Fat Joe" Scapini, the owner of the tattoo store, did not return calls for comment Thursday. Neither did Duplessis' lawyer John O. Noland Jr.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of negligence and asks for actual damages and attorney fees. It says Duplessis "endured pain and suffering" from a procedure to fix the misspelled tattoo, in addition to a "loss of self-esteem and psychological pain."
Duplessis refused to say whether the tattoo had been fixed, but the lawsuit said he "will continue to be injured and disfigured and to suffer in the future." The suit did not say when the procedure occurred to fix the tattoo.
In a past Tribune interview, Scapini said he started Jade Dragon Tattoo in 1980. He said in 1997 that the store performed thousands of tattoos a month with more than a dozen artists.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/)