TheJakartaPost
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Love hurts: Jakarta-based motor club embraces the art of 'itasha'
A local community that focuses on excessively decorating their vehicle with colorful decals is all about satisfying their lust for anime and grabbing people’s attention on the streets.
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Surrounded by friends: Yoga's motorcycle is decorated with his favorite anime characters. (JP/Courtesy of Yoel Lucky)
Y
ou would notice them riding down the streets. Calling themselves the ITA Indonesia Club, this Jakarta-based community pulls no punches when making sure their vehicles stick out on the road, adorning them with what some may see as an overbearing amount of stickers and paint jobs of Japanese anime characters all over.
ITA currently counts over 800 car and motorcycle owners as registered members, from and beyond Jakarta.
The community was formed in 2012 by car enthusiast Michael Sukiman, who had collaborated with a Japanese artist to decorate his own car for a car modification contest that year. At the event, Michael met with similar-minded people, which eventually led to ITA’s forming in December that year. Through a Facebook page he set up, Michael and his new friends grew their community.
ITA takes its name from the Japanese term itasha, which literally translates as “car that hurts”. This refers to people decorating their cars with stickers or paint schemes of fictional characters, especially female ones, from anime, manga or video games.
The term is the result of combining the Japanese words itai (painful) and sha (vehicle). Itai can be interpreted as “hurt with shame” because of the excessive stickers displayed or “pain on the wallet” due to the high costs involved. The term for decorated motorcycles and bicycles is itansha.
Not a freak
