Inspired by many celebrities and Western culture, more and more young Japanese people get tattoos even though cherry society has not fully embraced this type of tattoo.
At the end of a meeting with a client in the office
Ayaka Kizu, a web designer in Tokyo, was able to remove the medical tape on her right arm, revealing a tattoo of a colorful unicorn.
The 28-year-old is one of a growing number of young st patrick's day costume people fighting against Japan's longstanding prejudice against tattoos, which is often equated with organized crime, according to the New York Times.
Inspired by Japanese influencers and foreign artists, at the age of 19, Kizu decided to get a crescent moon tattoo on his right thigh to show his love for the manga Sugar Sugar Rune. After that, she got 5 more tattoos.
Since he started working part-time in college, Kizu had to find a way to cover up his tattoos. For example, she wears her hair down to hide a figure behind her ear. With the exception of some comfortable working environments, exposing tattoos is still basically prohibited.
"It's heartbreaking, but as long as I keep them hidden at work, I don't mind. I wanted to look fashionable and simply decided to get them tattooed."
With each time going online
young Japanese people are more exposed to the tattoos of famous singers and models, gradually removing the stigma against tattoo art and boldly challenging the expectations of society. appearance association.
According to Yoshimi Yamamoto, a cultural anthropologist at Tsuru University, there are currently about 1.4 million Japanese adults with tattoos, almost double the 2014 figure.
In 2020, Japan's Supreme Court ruled that people who are not licensed medical professionals can perform tattoos. According to a survey conducted by an information technology company in 2021, 60% of people aged 20 and under believe that general rules regarding tattoos should be relaxed.
In big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, it's increasingly common to expose tattoos among food service workers, retail employees or those working in the fashion industry. Takafumi Seto (34) wore a T-shirt showing off the black and red ink tattoos on his arm while working as a bartender at a trendy cafe in Shinjuku.
Seto started tattooing a lot when he moved to Tokyo.
Most of the pictures were tattooed by Seto after moving from a western suburb of Japan to Tokyo 10 years ago. His grandmother didn't know about these tattoos, so he only visited her in the winter, when he could wear long sleeves.
“I think the barrier to getting a tattoo has dropped. On Instagram, people show off their tattoos. Now, the tattoo is 'OK'."
Hiroki Kakehashi (44), a tattoo artist known to many women in their 20s for his coin-sized minifigures, says his clients now come from a variety of professions: government employees, teachers. high school, nurse.
"They often get tattoos where they can be hidden, but there are more people with tattoos than they imagine."
Tattoos have a long history in Japan and are often associated with organized crime. It was not until 1948 that this art form was legalized, but the stigma remained.
Yakuza, or Japanese gangsters, often have "wabori" from the neck to the ankles - traditional hand-carved tattoos in Japan. Because of the image of these criminal organizations, many hot spring resorts, beaches and gyms ban people with tattoos. Office jobs that allow tattoos are still few, many companies forbid candidates to "stick with ink".
Tattoos are also considered
one of the violations of the standards of appearance baseball jersey design that Japanese people want and those who deviate from that standard can be punished.
In 2016, two subway drivers received negative reviews after refusing to shave. In 2017, a high school girl with naturally brown hair in Osaka sued the government after being fined for not dyeing it black.
Many public places in Japan such as gyms and hot springs do not accept people with tattoos.
However, regulations are gradually being relaxed after encountering many reactions.
In 2019, Coca-Cola Japan announced that it would allow employees to wear jeans and sneakers to "encourage individuality". Last month, the Tokyo Board of Education announced that nearly 200 public schools would remove five regulations on appearance, including requiring students to wear black hair or specifying underwear.
Regarding tattoos, the case that led to the Japanese Supreme Court's groundbreaking decision began in 2015, when Taiki Masuda, 34, an Osaka-based tattooist, was fined by police for violating the medical practice law. .
The artist refused to pay a fine of 300,000 yen (US$3,750) because he said that "meaning that tattooing is guilty and all tattoo artists are criminals" and brought the case to court. .