Anyone who knows me or has to suffer sharing a Slack channel with me knows that I love Majima from the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. It should come as no surprise to anyone then that for Like a Dragon Week here at TheGamer, I spoke to my fa🌳vourite Majima cosplaꦆyer, Damien Ferne, more commonly known by his online username, 1000014.

In addition to his deep love for the series and Majima, as well as his incredible cosplay skills, another thing to note about Ferne is that he went all out when it came to Majima cosplay. He has Majima’s full irezumi tattooed on him, and it looks fantastic. It’s not exactly the same, as Ferne already had tattoos, which meant doing some cover-ups and fitting arou🌱nd t🦩hem, but it’s impressively close.

Ferne tells us that he’s always loved tattoos, especially Japanese-style tattoos, so he was always planning to get something Japanese on hi🦄s back but struggled to decide on what to get. When he began cosplaying as Majima, he had it drawn on before moving onto transfer paper. After a while, he realised that he liked how it fit and looked on his body. After a little research to find somewhere reputable to create the style, Ferne eventually committed to getting the full tattoo.

First two images by Zero Drift Photography, next two images by Pharaoh Shoots, and the final two images by C Beadle Photography.

“Aside from the ease of cosplay, I suppose there are aspects of his character I can relate to,” Ferne says about why he chose to have a tattoo based on Majima’s irezumi. “I like the legend behind t♋he hannya. She can be scary and vengeful, but she also has a lot of positive meanings behind her sorrow, such as passion, courage and protection to name a few. I won’t go into everything as to why I went for this, as I could write a novel, but these are a few reasons! I also really like snakes.”

To show appreciation for traditional Japanese tattoo methods and see how it felt compared to modern machine techniques, Ferne also had part of his tattoo applied using the tebori method. This uses a bꦺamboo or metal tool with a needle attached to it and poked by hand rather than machine, which Ferne says is “very relaxing in comparison”.

Although h🔥e has the Yakuza 3 demo lingering in his old downloads from 2009, Ferne says he has no memory of playing this, and his first real experience with the series was when PlayStation Plus offered Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5 around 2015 because “hey, free games!”. He admits the “brain rot” (read: undying love for the series) didꦦn’t set in until 2017, which was also the year he first tested out his Majima cosplay after a friend gifted him the official snake eyepatch.

Photography by Chyphens.

“By this point, I was already thinking about cosplaying Majima, as a friend pointed out we had the same nose, and to be honest I have a thing about cosplaying characters with eyepatches,” he says. “So I deep-dived into the games. I remember seeing the scene with Majima sitting with Saejima and s🥂aying, ‘This gremlin, I dunno w🦩hether I want him or want to be him’. Everything went downhill from there.”

“I think I became a fan as I really like the sheer amount of things to do in the game, the stories are touching and let’s f🌱ace it the main character through most of the g♉ames is easy on the eyes, and has beautiful eyes. I’ve also always been into Yakuza films, mainly when I was younger watching Miike and Kitano films, so I think the games slid nicely into this media.”

There’s always a debate on which game is the best entry point into the series. While Ferne says Kiwami is a good place to start as it’s the official beginning of the series, he believes people could start anywhere. “I think realistically start anywhere you want. Ok, so some story plots may be a little more confusing, but it’s easy to catc🌱h up.” His favourites include Kiwami, Dead Souls, and Yakuza 4 and 5, as they were his gateway into the series, but says he loves all the games and that “Gaiden has very easily snuck into my top list too”.

First two images by Colonelrohjaz, third image by Petits Pois Photography, and final image by Noi.

Ferne has worked with Sega for several fundraiser events, doing extended streams in cosplay while doing giveaways to help raise money for charity. “It is always such a good feeling to take part in these events. I work with such a lovely team on them too, always bigging each other up regardless of if you make £100 or &po𝐆und;1000 for the chosen charity.”

Ferne also has plans to try and create a Like a Dragon-themed fan event and is currently in talks with a few people from the LaD community to achieve this. “It would be amazing for fans of the series to have a dedicated𒁃 mini-convention. I’ve helped out at a couple of meets now and it seems like it would be a fun idea and a🎃 great way to get to know more people into the series, and maybe even introduce others to it.”

Ideally, the event would have enough room for an artist alley for fans to sell their products, as well as space for the community to showcase their creativity and love in other ways, such as cosplay parades or competitions. Plus, Ferne l🐈oves the idea of a karaoke room.

First two images by Gary-Lindsay Moore, third image by Dr Ninomae, final image by Lousie Evans.

“If anyone wants to network or anyone who has contacts for getting a fan convention off the ground, please contact me. As I said, the idea is cu🔴rrently in the planning stage, however, I would love to work with others who have more experience in this.”

This weekend at Kokorocon in Nottingham, UK, there is a Yakuza/LaD panel, and lots of fans and cosplayers will be in attenꦰdance, including Ferne who wants 2024 to be a “Yakuza takeover”. You can keep up with Ferne’s awesome cosplay via his , , an🐬d , and he encourages fans to reach out and chat LaD or to come and say hello if they see him at an event.