Tattooing in Japan has been around for a long time and has undergone a wide variety of criticism and critique. Dating back to 10,000 BC, Irezumi (入れ墨), the Japanese word for tattooing which literally means 'to insert ink" was originally done for spiritual or decorative purposes. Somewhere around 300-600 AD tattooing started to get a bad name. Instead of being done for spiritual purpose, it was done as a punishment for criminals.
Traditional Japanese tattooing is not the same as the way tattooing is done nowadays around the world, with an electric tool containing a needle. Rather, Irezumi is a much more painful process in which the tattoo artist drills the ink under the skin by hand with different tools. Irezuni is usually done so that the whole body is covered with tattoo art.
For many years tattooing was associated with the yakuza, an infamous crime gang in Japan. Tattooing was outlawed because Japan wanted acceptance from Western nations and not be looked at with the negative stereotype that tattoos held. However, it turned out that many westerners were coming to Japan to get tattooed because they were interested in the practice. In 1945 tattoos were made legal, but they still had the criminal image attached to them.
Nowadays, tattooing and body modifications are gaining mainstream acceptance, but are nowhere as popular as they are in America. Many young people get small tattoos for decoration, but older generations are usually strictly against the practice. Actress Angelina Jolie is known to have gone to Thailand in 2004 and gotten a Traditional Asian tattoo done by hand in a spiritual process that involved chanting and blessings.
My thoughts on all of this? I am sort of bias because I am a tattoo enthusiast. I love tattoos and think Japanese style tatoo artwork is beautiful. Japan is a very conservative country however and I think Japanese tattoo work has more popularity and acceptance in America. I wanted to get tattooed in Japan, but after doing research on the process, I do not think it is as easy as it is in the states where tattoo shops are common and anyone can enter. Traditional Irezumi artists tattoo in their home and incorporate spirituality in it.
I am not covered in tattoos, but I do have visible ones on my wrists. I am interested to see how they will be perceived in Japan.
マリㇱサ
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