What is your opinion about people with tattoo?
It became big news when the mayor of one of the Japanese biggest cities, Osaka city announced that he would transfer his employee with tattoo to sections that don’t have any contact with citizens. He decided that after one of the city employees was reported that he scared children with his tattoo when he worked as a government employee.
Tattoo has a long history in Japanese society. There are lots of histories about tattoo in Japan, but it has not exactly the bright ones. At the beginning, it was more like a punishing thing to criminals in the early 18th century. At that time, Japanese tattoo skill got improved dramatically. It was a mark to alarm citizens not to come close to the ones with criminal records. So the tattoo had to be impossible to remove or hide. The ink was something specially made, the way to put it on skin was also improved in this period. Japanese tattoo is called “Irezumi” in Japanese. The design and the special way of putting tattoo are still pretty popular all over the world. Since it is much more painful than the recent lazar ones, not so many people make tattoo in the Japanese traditional way, but there are people who prefer to have the pain to have meaningful tattoo on their bodies too.
In 19th century, tattoo started to be a fashion tool between guys who have physical job like constructors. As for women, tattoo was a one way to show appreciation for customers among prostitute women. It was the time that tattoo started to be a something cool in some communities. It is a fashion thing, but still some gang use tattoo as a mark for the group so that they can recognize each other. For women, it is tougher because in a long time, women who had sexual relationship with gang members have special tattoo to show that they are different kind of woman to guys who live outside of gangs.
Now, tattoo is nothing but a fashion thing among young people, but there are still some difficulties if you are tattooed. The well known one is for public bath. Since the public places don’t appreciate gang members, people with tattoo are not allowed to go into public bath or some swimming pools. To be a public worker, it can be difficult too because in some sections, there is a body check as an exam to be a public worker.
Here in France, even public worker, police officers have tattoos. It is perfectly normal thing just like putting glasses, but in Japan it is not the same story. Japan can be very conservative. If you are willing to work in Japan, you should know that there is a possibility that you will have a problem because of your beautiful tattoo, but don’t worry usually you just need to find a way to hide it.
Thank you to read my article
Ayami
