Tattoo Assassins


NEW - Splattered Ink: The Story of Tattoo Assassins

NEW - Classic GameRoom reviews the game

Sprites have been ripped from Tattoo Assassins.

Destructoid names Tattoo Assassins the #1 worst Mortal Kombat klone!

I-Mockery destroys Tattoo Assassins and its fatalities.

Game endings revealed!

Hilarious dissection of the game.

A peek at one source code file from Tattoo Assassins.

Tattoo Assassins prototype nearly destroyed by flood.

Arcade History entry.

International Arcade Museum (KLOV) entry.

Dan Amrich's insight into the story.

A Youtube video of gameplay, from where you can find many others.

As many as 24 cabinets were produced for the AMOA show in San Antonio in September 1994, but it seems that most were intentionally destroyed in May 1995. The only remaining cabinets would be ones which were sold to interested collectors shortly before that time.

There are at least four working cabinets known to exist. One was nearly destroyed in the PAPA flood. There may be others, based on stories that the game has been on location in California, Maryland, and a cruise ship. At present, two of the working games are in the PAPA Collection, which appears annually at Replay FX.

The game is not "locked up at DE headquarters". Data East went out of business not too long after Data East Pinball became Sega Pinball. None of the machines were ever produced outside of the allotment in Chicago.

Tattoo Assassins has been largely emulated via MAME32 as of version 0.67. The ACE/Jack chip (special effects) is not emulated. Also, the ROMs can be hard to find.