Star Tattoo

to dissolve had they just been able to remove a metal ring from around their fingers and store it in a jewelry box; but neither of them regret their decision nor wish to cover the tat (much to my dismay, when I am feeling selfish and not thinking logically) even though the tattoo is located on a very prominent body part.

Perhaps this is why so many people choose to imprint words and messages on their hands. Other than your face, your hands are the feature you put forward first. We shake hands when meeting and greeting, high five when we're happy and give the thumbs up sign when we've accomplished something, so it makes sense to tattoo our ideals on the body part we use to communicate ideas with. Of course, images can be placed on hands as well, and you'll be amazed at the inventive and extraordinary things people can think up when it comes to body modification: a palm that opens to reveal a third eye, two halves of one heart that only form a whole when the hands are clasped together in prayer, letters on the insides of the knuckles rather than the outside and much, much more.

Yet for the larger percentage of the county and anyone over 30 years of age or so tattoos are still considered as for lower class or Yakuza (The Japanese Organized Crime Gangs).

Irezumi, Horimono or Tattoo?
So what do we call a tattoo? Of course here in the west it is a very simple matter as we only have one word for tattoos and it is universally understood what is meant. However, in Japan the word tattoo can be written in a vareity of ways.

Two of the most common ways are Irezumi and Horimono. Irezumi has become the most accepted word to designate the art form of tattoos. Irezumi litterall y means "insert ink" So while here in the west you will most often ehre the word"tattoo" when referring to Japanese tattooing you might come across the word "Irezumi".

characters which literally means 'insert ink'. The Japanese people were thought to use tattoos for both spiritual and decorative purposes and extends back to the Jomon period (~10000 BCE).

At the beginning of the Meiji period the Japanese government, wanting to protect its image and make a good impression on the West, outlawed tattoos, and irezumi took on connotations of criminality. Nevertheless, fascinated foreigners went to Japan seeking the skills of tattoo artists, and traditional tattooing continued underground.

Althought tattoing in Japan was legalized by the occupation forces in 1945, unfortunately it has retained an image of criminality. Traditional Japanese tattoos are often associated with the Japanese notorious mafia known as 'Yakuza'. Many places in Japan such as public baths, spas and fitness centers still ban customers with tattoos.

In Japan traditional irezumi is still done by specialist tattooists, but is a painful, time-consuming and expensive process. A typical traditional body suit (tattoos that cover the arms, back, upper legs and chest, but leaving an untattooed space down the center of the body) can take 1-5 years of once-per-week visits to complete and cost more than US$30,000.

people. In the eyes of an average Japanese a tattoo is considered a mark of a yakuza - a member of the Japanese mafia - or a macho symbol of members of the lower classes.

Early History of Tattoo Art
Archaeologists believe that the early settlers of Japan, the Ainu people, used facial tattoos. Chinese documents report about the Wa people - the Chinese name for their Japanese neighbors - and their habits of diving into water for fish and shells and decorating the whole body with tattoos. These reports are about 1700 years old.

For the higher developed Chinese culture, tattooing was a barbaric act. When Buddhism was brought from China to Japan and with it a strong influence of the Chinese culture, tattooing got negative connotations. Criminals were marked with tattoos to punish and identify them in society.
Tattoos in the Edo Period
108 Heroes of the Suikoden
108 Heroes of the Suikoden
by Kuniyoshi

During the Edo period - 1603-1868 - Japanese tattoo art became a part of ukiyo-e - the floating world culture. Prostitutes - yujos - of the pleasure quarters used tattoos to increase their attractiveness for customers. Body tattoos were used by laborers and firemen.

From 1720 on, the tattooing of criminals became an official punishment and replaced the amputation of the nose and the ears. The criminal received a ring tattoo around the arm for each offense or a character tattoo on his forehead. Tattooing criminals was continued until 1870, when it was abolished by the new Meiji government of the Japanese Emperor.

This visible punishment created a new class of outcasts that had no place in society and nowhere to go. Many of these outlaws were ronin - masterless samurai warriors. They had no alternatives than organizing in gangs. These men formed the roots of yakuza - the organized criminals in Japan in the twentieth century.
Tattoo Prints
Tattoo print
Tattoo print
by Hirosada Utagawa

In 1827 the ukiyo-e artist Kuniyoshi published the first 6 designs of the 108 Heroes of the Suikoden. The Suikoden were something like ancient Robin Hoods - honorable bandits. The story is based on a classic Chinese novel - Shui-Hi-Chuan, that dates from the 13th and 14th century. The novel was first translated into Japanese in 1757 by Okajima Kanzanion. At the turn of the 18th to the 19th century the story was published with illustrations by Katsushika Hokusai. The novel of the 108 honorable bandits was very popular in Japan and caused a kind of Suikoden craze among Japanese townspeople.

Kuniyoshi's Suikoden ukiyo-e designs show the heroes in colorful, full body tattoos. Japanese tattoo prints and tattoo art in general then became stylish. Tattoos were considered iki - cool - but were restricted to the lower classes.

The richness and fantasy of the Japanese tattoo prints designs shown by Kuniyoshi are used by some tattoo artists up to this time.
The Meiji Restoration until Postwar Japan
Tattoo print
Tattoo print
by Tadamasa Ueno

In its strive to adopt Western civilizations, the Imperial Meiji government banned tattooing as something considered a barbaric relict of the past. The funny thing was that the Japanese irezumi artists now got new clients - the sailors from the foreign ships anchoring in Japanese harbors. Thus Japanese tattoo art was spread to the West.

During the first half of the twentieth century, horimono remained a forbidden art form until 1948, when the prohibition was officially lifted. Some say that this step had become necessary to legalize the demand by soldiers of the American occupation forces for horimono and irezumi.
Tattoo Art in Modern Japan

Although some younger people may consider tattooing as trendy, the majority of the Japanese population still considers it as something connected to the underworld of mafia gangsters or a bad low class habit at the best. Younger people who consider tattoos as iki - a minority among Japanese youth - tend to use partial tattoos in Western style on their upper arms, where it is not directly visible.