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Expat gets Ya Kun tattoo before leaving SG

SINGAPORE: After a three-year stint in Singapore, a man from the Philippines decided to get a unique reminder of his days in the city-state in the form of a permanent tattoo of the words “Ya Kun.”

According to the caption on his video, John Paul Penuliar will miss the popular kaya toast chain’s iced soya milk coffee. When he showed the tattoo to his friends, some were shocked, and the video he posted on Instagram showing his friends’ reactions has gone viral.

Nevertheless, all but one of his friends recognise the tattoo immediately.

“You’re crazy,” one of his women friends tells him, while he gets a chorus of several “wths” from others.

Many of his friends burst into laughter, while others can hardly believe that the tattoo is real.

“Why do you have that? What happened?” Another woman friend asks him, adding, “Are you okay mentally?”

“Why would you do that?” asks another.

His video has since gone viral, getting almost 13,000 likes since he posted it on Nov 30.


Other than the tattoo, I’m impressed that you have that many friends to show it to,” wrote an IG user.

Another agreed, writing, “This one video actually shows more people than I know in my lifetime.

“The reverse would be a Singaporean getting a Jollibee tattoo,” a commenter quipped.

However, another answered back with, “Nah! Too mainstream! Either a Chowking or a Goldilocks for me.”

“As a Singaporean living in the Philippines, I will get ‘Mary Grace’ tattooed on my arm,” a netizen chimed in.

A fellow Filipino who’d been living in Singapore for many years and is likely to come home soon said that they were considering getting a mynah tattoo soon, and added that Singapore is “such a big part of us!”

Another wrote, “We’ve seen enough, give this guy a citizenship now,” though a commenter joked that “maybe you should also get Old Chang Kee.”

One tagged Ya Kun and added, “Please give him a lifetime voucher.”

Something uniquely Singaporean

Mr Penuliar, who can be found on TikTok through his passion project of teaching math to young Filipino students, told TISG that he’s still with the same multinational consumer goods company, though his assignment overseas is done.

“It was a great experience staying in Singapore,” he said, and it sounds like making friends was a big part of it.

As for his tattoo, he had looked for something unique that would remind him of his life in Singapore.

“It so happened that I really like Ya Kun,” he said, adding that he ate there often and found that the Chinese characters in the logo looked nice.

“I didn’t want the design to be too obvious, like a Merlion, but I considered it,” he told us. /TISG

Read also: Yakun Kaya Toast Set A price up by 31%?

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