My Custom Tattoo: Tattoo Designs

So we have come full circle now and this is the last in our Japanese Tattoo series for now. Although we will be publishing some articles soon on Japanese tattoos this is kind of the last featured post about Japanese tattoos through videos. We have kind of come full circle now of sorts. When we started we talked about tattooing for the Japanese in a historical perspective and how it was used to brand criminals. Then this was later outlawed and subsequently adopted by Yakuza. They would get full body tattoos that when you wear clothes no one could see but a small reveal of such a tattoo could strike fear in others.

Thus tradition lead to some of the most beautiful full body tattoo designs ever done and we even saw where people are buying the skin of a tattooed person who has died. There was some of these skins preserved at Tokyo University. Pretty chilling to hear as they talk about these being sold on the black market. Not sure how you would ever find your way into buying one of these but that is another post for a latter time. Suffice it to say it is probably not being sold on eBay.

Then in our more recent or last post we saw some video and a short documentary how many of the young people in Japan are getting tattoos. However they are in no way affiliated with the Yakuza and they just love the art form of tattooing. Thus has been the more significant trend over the last ten to 15 years and now many young Japanese show off their tattoos like here in the West.

Well in today’s video we make it full circle because recently the San Francisco Japanese Museum had an exhibit where they displayed some of the full body traditonal Japanese tattoos in their gallery as an art exhibit. They also invited many of the top Japanese tattoo artists to come from Japan to do tattooing.

Welcome to the 4th post in our series on Japanese tattoos. You will remeber in the first post we talked about the connection between tattoos and the Yakuza. It noted how early in Japanese history criminals were tattooed as a form of punishment. Thus making them untouchables. Thus lead to the modern day Yakuza tattooing themselves to make them stand out away from society as individuals and etc. I was more eloquent hopefully in the last post. However, what is happening today is the younger generations in Japan have adopted Western ways more and more. So along with this adoption of western norms has come a new breed of tattoo aficionado. Today many young people get tattoos for the pure sake of the art and the beauty of it and have no connection with the Yakuza. You could start to see that a little bit in the last video and you will see it even more in this video.

Today we will continue the series on Japanese tattoo designs. Remember that yesterday in our post we watched an older history channel video that was showing the connection between Japanese tattoos and the Yakuza. Today we are going to venture off the more documentary side of things and instead show a nicely done video that just shows images and pictures of tattoos. Many of these are Yakuza full body suits of tattoos however not all of them are. In fact that is one of reasons why this video and post seems appropriate. It shows a lot of Yakuza tattoos but also you start to see some images of tattoos on younger men that are just getting the tattoo because they love the art form and they love tattoos.

One little vocabulary lesson before you jump into the video however. Tattoos in Japanese are called Irezumi. Interesting vocabulary fact.

Here is a good video done by National Geographic. It shows the traditional side of getting tattoos. Now keep in mind that this video was done probably 15 or so years ago. Things have changed some since then. However, it shows the the history of tattooing within Japan.

Originally the Japanese government would brand and tattoo people who were criminals. THus lead to tattoos being outlawed. However, the Japanese Yakuza adapted this and went underground in a way by developing full body tattoos that could be hidden. Thus the full body tattoo suit would not cover past the wrist, ankle and typically has a space down the middle front of the body so when wearing clothes the tattoos are hidden.

Remember however, that this video was done in the past and tattooing has taken a major turn in Japanese culture. Yes there are still Yakuza and yes there are still many Yakuza who are getting full body tattoo suits. However, tattoos have also become more popular now and the younger generation is starting to get tattoos for the sake of art and body adornment and not necessarily tied with any Yakuza affiliation.

What do you think about this video and the tattoos? We will continue this series on Japanese Tattoos and in the next post look at some other Japanese Tattoo videos.