Japanese Tattooing

There isn't very much information on the exact history of Japanese tattooing, but there has been some evidence that ancient Japanese people would partake in the ritual. There have been statuettes that resemble people with tattoo like marks found in tombs. It is thought that these statuettes were made to look like a person to honor them after they died.

Chinese accounts around 297 A.D. are the first actually mention of Japanese tattoos. Tattooing was considered to be a practice reserved to savage cultures, so the Chinese talked about it in derogatory terms. The Chinese slowly influenced Japanese society until eventually tattooing was used for punishment. They were placed on the forehead or on a visible location on the arm to show that the person had broken a law.

The now tattooed law breakers lived on the outskirts of society as hermits. Nobody was willing to hire them, they were rejected by their friends and family, and sometimes even their partners in crime! Getting tattooed in this society was worse than being executed.

There was an eventual shift in thought in Japanese society. Tattoos were still used to show that someone was a criminal but it was also used to show members of another group of people - samurai.  This would allow them to easily identify fallen comrades even if they didn't have their samurai armor on.

Now considered an art form throughout the world, Japanese tattooing has strong links to criminal behavior in Japan. The Japanese mafia, called the Yakuza, is identified by their tattoos. The more powerful the gangster, the more elaborate his tattoos will be.

Members are encouraged to have their body entirely covered in tattoos. The Yakuza, much like street gangs in America view tattooing as a test of a man's, masculinity, strength, and loyalty. However, this practice is starting to fade because the next generation of Yakuza have realized getting away with crime is more lucrative than to look good while doing it. They believe this because it makes it harder to blend in when you have marked yourself with the common symbol for a criminal. This also makes it easier for witnesses and victims to identify who their attacker was. The Yakuza have abandoned the idea of pictorial tattooing and have substituted it with simple drawings of lines or phrases. Tattooing is still going strong in organized crime groups of all nationalities and cultures.