When Mana Izumi got her first tattoo at 18, she wasn’t trying to rebel or shatter any taboos — just copy Japanese pop diva Namie Amuro's beach-bronze ‘surfer chick’ look.
In Japan, where tattoos have for centuries been demonised for their association with criminals, former porn star Izumi turns heads with her copper tan, bleach-blonde bob, and an array of designs inked across half of her body. “When my mum first saw my tattoo she burst into tears and I thought my dad was going to kill me. But I like being a bit different,” the 29-year-old said.
Tattoos still provoke deep-rooted suspicion in Japan as the country prepares to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
People with body ink are refused entry to public swimming pools, bathing spots, beaches and often gyms, while visible body art can be harmful to job prospects.
Japan has long had a prickly relationship with tattoos. In the 17th century criminals were branded as a form of punishment, while today Japan’s yakuza mobsters pledge their loyalty with traditional, full-body ‘irezumi’ tattoos.
As Japan opened up to the outside world in the 1800s, tattoos were outlawed — along with snake-charming and public nudity — because the Japanese feared outsiders would think they were ‘primitive’, according to Brian Ashcraft, author of Japanese Tattoos: History, Culture, Design .
The ban lasted until 1948 when the occupying American forces lifted it but the stigma remains in Japan. “They look at tattoos and they think ‘yakuza’ — instead of admiring the beauty of the art form,” said Mr. Ashcraft.
Authorities turn a blind eye to the ban for the most part but a recent crackdown involving several police raids and fines has plunged Japan’s tattoo industry into confusion.
Meanwhile, a potentially game-changing legal battle recently ended after Osaka tattooist Taiki Masuda was arrested in 2015 for violating an obscure law that dates back almost 70 years. The 30-year-old was fined 300,000 yen ($2,600) under the Medical Practitioners’ Act, which forbids anyone other than a doctor from performing medical procedures.
‘Medical work’
A 2001 Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry notice ruled that tattooing was medical work because it involves needles, technically criminalising Mr. Masuda’s job. He decided to fight the law and last month, a court overturned his previous guilty verdict.“There’s no legal framework regulating the tattoo industry in Japan,” Mr. Masuda said.
Japan’s squeamishness about tattoos will be put to the test at the Tokyo Olympics, and before that at next year’s Rugby World Cup, both set to bring an influx of foreign visitors — including athletes with body art. “I don’t know how much the Olympics is actually going to change opinions,” said author Ashcraft, noting that Japanese television still blurs out tattoos.
At the root of much of the prejudice towards tattoos in Japan is the ancient Confucian idea that defacing the body inherited from one’s parents is disrespectful, according to Mr. Ashcraft.
“I don’t think people are actively thinking that it’s dirty anymore,” he added. “But I do think that collective consciousness still lingers.”
