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"I fucking love this," a Reddit commenter gushes, appraising the not-so-new, but recently resurrected Tenderloin District sign by user
badmonkey0001.
Blogger
SF Citizen wholeheartedly agrees: "Bro was on when he made this one."
Designed in 2005, the sign was intended as a parody of the
Japan Town signs that dot Van Ness Avenue, albeit with the logo switched from a Peace pagoda to a high-heeled hooker, and the Kanji script switched to graffiti letters. ("Da TL" is the proper translation of "Tenderloin," badmonkey insists).
For nine years, the sign has only existed digitally and on T-shirts, but now badmonkey has vowed to make it public domain. He says he hewed to city specs, meaning the arrow had to point in the direction of the district, the landmark had to be on the left side, and the name of the district had to be written in US English, with a "native translation" ("da TL") below.
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The sign's creator has unleashed it for anyone to pilfer, sample, or tweak. No pressure, but we'd love to see a version with an eco-friendly Tenderloin
pissoir.
Sadly, the Japan Town equivalent is copywritten.