From: mason@lion.erg.sri.com (Mason Jones)
Subject: Re: TATTOOS IN JAPAN
Reply-To: mason@lion.erg.sri.com (Mason Jones)
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 21:20:47 GMT

alt.industrial                                             
unsubscribedIn article <1h55ejINNhs5@cronkite.cisco.com>, kmac@cisco.com
(Karl MacRae) writes:
|>In article <YfBTm1200XsFEzo8pl@andrew.cmu.edu> David O Hunt
<bluelobster+@CMU.EDU> writes:
|>>Hey!
|>>
|>>There's a very good chance I'll be going to Japan next summer, and that
|>>I'll be in Tsukuba City (NE of Tokyo).  I've been playing with the idea
|>>of getting a tattoo, and an oriental dragon (done in the orient :) could
|>>be really good!
|>>
|>>Does anyone have any advice?  Price range?  Recommended artists?
|>
|>	In Japan, tattooing is strictly an underworld thing. As an outsider
|>	and a gaijin, you won't be able to get tattooed.

Let's not get to carried away with generalizations; it used to be pretty
much exclusively underworld -- that's not really the case any more.  It is
illegal or at least very suspect to do tattooing.  Certainly frowned-upon.
But it would be possible for a gaijin to get a tattoo, it's just a matter
of finding someone who would do it.  That wouldn't be easy unless you know
someone there who has tattoos and could direct you to someplace to get it
done.

|>	The tattoo masters do not do the sort of tattooing we do here; 
|>	they only take certain clients, and they only do full suits. (In
|>	fact, I think the Japanese (At least those in the tattoo subculture)
|>	regard our western style tattooing with some contempt; those
|>	of us with only bits and pieces tattooed are considered 'Half Men',
|>	being less then fully tattooed.

That's pretty much died out, actually.  When I was there I saw plenty of
musicians with various tattoos -- some of them were kinda Japanese in style,
others were very American in style (and no, most of those weren't gotten
here in the U.S., surprisingly).  The fact that so many American musicians
and other pop-culture people are displaying tattoos on MTV and in the
magazines the Japanese kids read is changing things.  Tattoos are beginning
to become yet another thing which is entering in a different manner through
the American pop-culture window.

|>	Tattooing is seen in general Japanese society as a BAD thing; a thing
|>	only criminals and certain low-but-honerable professions (Like
|>	carpenters or butchers or something; I forget exactly which trades
|>	tend to do it) do. Thus westerners with tattoos tend to be suspect.

Depends of course on where you go.  A gaijin friend of mine who lives there
has a small tattoo on his torso, and has had no problems going to the
public baths; the Japanese guys there are very curious about it, but because
he's a gaijin, they know it doesn't mean he's yakuza or anything like that,
so it seems as though it becomes an opportunity for them to ask about
tattoos without talking to a gangster.  Likewise, when I had my tattoos
visible in clubs, they were unusual there but certainly not shocking to
anyone.  A number of the musicians in Japan had tattoos, especially those
in the sort of 'death metal' genre.

If you look in the Japanese music magazines, like _Fool's Mate_, you'll
see lots of tattoos.  Appearance is just as important for successful
rock stars there as it is here, perhaps more so.  Tattoos are still seen
as fairly rebellious (as they are here but perhaps more so), so there's
a certain value to having them as a 'rebellious' rock star.


   <===============================================================>
         Mason Jones, temporarily at SRI International, Inc.
            mason@erg.sri.com or better: mason@netcom.com
   <===============================================================>