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 "Your house gets old, your
parents die, you break up with a lover, kids
grow and go," said Horiren, 52, at her studio
just north of Tokyo.
"But a tattoo is with you until you're cremated
and in your grave. That's the appeal."
Horiren belongs to a proud, growing tribe of
Japanese ink aficionados who defy deeply-rooted
taboos associating tattoos with crime, turning
their skin into vivid palettes of colour with
elaborate full-body designs, often featuring
characters from traditional legends.
(Click https://reut.rs/2HtXVfI to view a picture
package of Japan's tattoo aficionados.)
Banned from spas, hot spring resorts, some
beaches and many gyms and pools, the enthusiasts
hope the presence of tattooed foreign athletes
at last year's Rugby World Cup and next year's
Tokyo Olympic Games - postponed a year due to
the coronavirus pandemic - will help sweep away
suspicion.
"If you watch the All Blacks do the haka with
all their tattoos, it makes your heart beat
faster," said Horiren, referring to New
Zealand's national rugby team and their pre-game
ceremony.
"Basketball players are really stylish, too. But
here, even boxers cover up with foundation."
Tattoos have been linked to criminals for as
long as 400 years, most recently to yakuza gang
members, whose full-body ink-work stops short of
hands and neck, allowing concealment under
regular clothes.
The popularity of Western rock music, though,
with musicians increasingly sporting tattoos,
has eaten away at this bias.
A court decision last year that tattoos were for
decoration, and were not medical procedures,
helped clarify their murky legal status and may
signal a shift in attitude - perhaps leading the
industry to regulate itself, giving it a more
mainstream image.
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Referring to them as tattoos rather than "irezumi"
- literally meaning "inserting ink" - as is
becoming more common, may also help give them a
stylish, fashionable veneer.
"Some people get tattoos for deep reasons, but I
do it because they're cute, the same way I might
buy a nice blouse," said Mari Okasaka, 48, a
part-time worker who got her first tattoo at 28.
Her 24-year-old son, Tenji, is working towards
having his whole body covered in ink and colour.
Tattoo devotees are edging into the open as
well, meeting at large parties to bare and share
their designs.
"We may have tattoos but we are happy and bright
people," said party organizer and scrapyard
worker Hiroyuki Nemoto.
Surfer and TV set-maker Takashi Mikajiri,
though, is still stopped on some beaches and
ordered to cover up.
Rie Yoshihara, who works in a shop dressing
tourists in kimonos, said her shocked father has
still not seen her full back tattoo, while
Okasaka wears long sleeves to take out the
garbage so her neighbours won't talk.
"In America, if you have a tattoo, people don't
really care. There's not really any reaction,"
said Mikajiri.
"That's the ideal. It'd be really good to just
be taken for granted."
(Reporting by Kim Kyung Hoon and Elaine Lies;
Additional reporting by Jack Tarrant; Editing by
Tom Hogue)
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