After the opening of Universal Studios, there are some distinctive prohibitions in different countries.
For example, Universal Studios Beijing prohibits tourists from flying kites. In the United States, there is no such provision. But Universal Studios in Hollywood prohibits visitors from carrying cannabis products with them.
Marijuana, which is very American.
In the "Rules and Etiquette" section of Universal Studios Japan, there is also a prohibition with Japanese characteristics: it is forbidden to expose tattoos to enter the park.
On the Internet, there are also some discussions about universal studios in Japan, mentioning the experience of being refused admission to the park by ticket inspectors because of exposing tattoos.
The netizen shared what happened to one of his tattooed friends at Universal Studios Osaka. Even on hot days, the staff still requires his friend to wear clothes that cover the tattoo, otherwise he is not allowed to enter the park. Despite being in line for a long time, they eventually had to leave Universal Studios.
Image source: tripadvisor
Not only Universal Studios, but also many public places in Japan are explicitly forbidden to be entered by tattooists. For example, public baths. This is not a legal prohibition, but there is a deep rejection of tattoos in Japanese society.
Invisible tattoos
Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan, has stricter restrictions on staff, which previously strictly prohibited staff from tattooing.
It was not until September 2021, in order to show the importance attached to employees' "personal self-expression", that the employee dress code was revised, allowing employees to tattoo for the first time, but still requiring that their tattoos must be covered by clothing and cannot be exposed.
At the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, audiences from many countries saw different tattoos on Olympians.
For example, Caeleb Dressel, an American who won five swimming gold medals, tattooed eagles, black bears, crocodiles and orange blossoms on his arms.
Caeleb Dressel
Image source: Network
British boxer Frazer Clarke tattooed boxer Ali on his left arm.
British boxer Frazer Clarke
Jamaican Elaine Thompson, who won the women's sprint championships, tattooed an inspirational chicken soup: "Nothing is impossible. Even the word 'impossible' says 'I have the possibility'. ”
Jamaican Elaine Thompson's tattoo is: Nothing is impossible, even the word impossiblesays "I'm possible."
However, japanese people rarely see this scene, and the media will try to avoid showing such a picture. The Japan Times said in a report: "The tattoos of Olympians have not left a mark on the Japanese media."
Criminals and the underclass are tattooed
The Japanese rejection of tattoos is also related to China to some extent.
Regarding Japanese tattoos, the earliest written records come from Chen Shou's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Zhi, and Biography of the Wuren" during the Western Jin Dynasty. According to records, tattoos were very common among the Japanese aborigines at that time, and many men and women had tattoos, believing that when they went out to sea to fish, tattoos could play the role of amulets and could resist the beasts of the sea.
However, after that, the Chinese "ink punishment" (tattooing the prisoner's face and dyeing ink again) was introduced to Japan, and the tattoo gradually changed from "amulet" to "ten thousand people". It began to become a means of punishing and distinguishing criminals. The prisoner's forehead or arm is tattooed with different symbols to mark the crime committed.
Different regions use different tattoos, and the governor of Choshu (present-day Hiroshima) in ancient times had a lot of ideas. The person who commits the first crime will be stabbed with a horizontal stab, the second time, the third time, the fourth time, and after tattooing a "dog" on his face, he can just go to the death penalty.
In ancient times, different tattoo symbols on the foreheads of Japanese prisoners represented different crimes
Until the Edo period (1603-1868), tattoos represented a dangerous, criminal signal in Japan, and were never accepted by mainstream society, except for prisoners, only some people at the bottom of society had tattoos.
For example, prostitutes in the Edo period liked to tattoo the names of important prostitutes on their fingers, and it was not enough to tattoo them, but also added a "life" word to the back to indicate that the love between the two was over.
Also fond of tattoos were the "kites" and "flying feet" of that time, which are now firefighters and postmen. At that time, they were often wearing only a crotch cloth at work, so they would tattoo large tattoos on their upper bodies to eliminate the discomfort caused by large areas of bare skin.
Tattooist of the Edo period
Interestingly, tattoos from the Edo period have a great connection to the "ukiyo-e" we often hear about today. Ukiyo-e is also a kind of woodblock print depicting Japanese folk customs, and at that time, the works of ukiyo-e painters were often used directly to use the body pattern, so these painters often also played the role of tattoo designers.
A ukiyo-e master in the late Edo period, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, also caused a "tattoo fever" in Japanese society.
In 1827, Utagawa Kuniyoshi published the album "Popular Water Margin Biography Haojie One Hundred Singles and Eight Generals", in which he painted a large area of tattoos for many heroes, domineering.
The good man of Liangshan under the brush of Utagawa Kuniyoshi is painted with a large tattoo.
Source: The official website of the British Museum
The good men of Liangshan itself symbolized the rebellion of the people at the bottom against the rulers, and in the late Edo period, there were also many commoners who had long been dissatisfied with the ruling class, and Utagawa Kuniyoshi's album was greatly praised. Many people have found tattoo masters, tattooed the Water Margin hero in the prints, and some people have directly tattooed the entire hero on the body to reflect their resistance and dissatisfaction.
Unfortunately, throughout Japanese history, tattoos have only been glorious for a short time in the Edo period. Fast forward to the Meiji period (1868-1912), and tattoos were suppressed by the government.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan carried out comprehensive Westernization and opened its doors. The first time many foreigners set foot on Japanese soil, it was also the first time they saw the strange sight of Japanese coolies and coachmen walking through the streets with near-naked, all-over tattoos. They regarded these observations as cultural characteristics and wrote them into travelogues.
The Meiji government felt that these tattooists were so indecent that they were simply discrediting the image of the country. Their bare tattoos look too uncivilized compared to well-dressed Westerners, and it seems that Japan is still a barbaric and uncivilized country.
Therefore, in 1872, the Meiji government passed a strict law prohibiting people from showing tattoos in public on the grounds of "disordered customs" and prohibiting tattooists from continuing to operate, and if they were discovered, they could be sentenced to imprisonment and detention.
Dramatically, however, the Meiji government did not expect that tattoos, which they regarded as "barbaric" customs, would later gain favor among "civilized" Europeans and Americans.
At that time, there were many foreigners who made special trips to Japan to get tattoos
At that time, the must-do list for many foreigners to travel to Japan was to punch in the tattoo shop, including many members of the European royal family. The more well-known customers are George V of England (Queen Elizabeth's grandfather) and Nicholas II of Russia (the last Tsar). In 1906, when Prince Arthur of the United Kingdom went to Japan to award the Meiji Emperor the Order of Garter, he also paid a special visit to the famous tattooist, the first generation of carvers, who had been arrested for government bans.
In this regard, the Japanese government has chosen to be strict with itself and lenient with others, on the one hand, it continues to strictly prohibit the tattooing of the people, and on the other hand, it tacitly allows tattooists to serve foreigners.
As Donald Ritchie, a well-known Japanese film researcher, put it, "It is ironic that foreigners have become new customers of tattoo artists who have lost their professions, which is ironic for Japan, which wants to quickly become a civilized country." “
In Meiji 19, an illustration in the British weekly Magazine The Graphic shows a British naval officer receiving tattoos in Japan.
Image source: Alamy
It was not until 1948 that the ban on tattoos was officially lifted in its entirety.
However, after the ban was lifted, tattoos were not properly named. On the contrary, the prejudice against tattoos in Japanese society is still deeply rooted to this day. It is no longer the government that has caused the people to boycott tattoos, but the fearsome Japanese gangsters.
Don't get tattooed, or dare you say that it is a mixture on the road?
The Japanese gang yakuza is the largest criminal organization in Asia and the world, and the Yamaguchi group we often hear about is just a gang affiliated with Yakuza. Inside Yakuza, tattoos are a gang culture, which is equivalent to "casting a name", and only when tattooed can it be regarded as one's own person.
In the eyes of the gang boss, the tattoo itself is the first test after the new members join the club, testing their courage and determination to join the gang - because the traditional Japanese tattoo is a pure hand to poke ink into the skin, the process is extremely long and painful, and may even faint in pain, and the average person can't stand it.
Gang members not only have to be tattooed, but they also have to tattoo a large piece, and when the tattoo ceremony is performed, the other members will watch from the sidelines. Therefore, those who dare to go up are warriors.
In the gang, tattooing is a collective activity.
Once tattooed, gang members can no longer return to normal life, and they have to remain loyal to the gang. Tattoos all over the body are like a most conspicuous brand, they can only use long-sleeved trousers to cover themselves tightly, otherwise everywhere they go, it is like directly telling the world: this person is mixed on the road, do not get close.
Embark on this road and there is no turning back.
In fact, when the ban was lifted after World War II, tattooed people were still able to enter and exit public places with great swagger, because at that time, in addition to gangsters, ordinary workers had tattoos.
But after the 1960s, gangster-themed films and television became popular in Japan. Directors such as Shinji Fukasaku and Takeshi Kitano continue to bring gangster stories to the big screen.
Gang boss in Japanese gangster movies
As Joy Hendry, a social anthropologist and author of Understanding Japanese Society, puts it, "Movies and TV shows depict gang elements partly horror and part romance." Under the influence of these works, the tattoo completely lost the original "harmless" part, and was more closely associated with the underworld, which made the people smell discolored.
After Japan's Organized Crime Law came into effect in 1991, gangsters were banned from appearing in public places, and since tattoos were their most prominent symbols, many public baths and hot springs began to post notices prohibiting tattoos from entering. Later, pools, beaches, parks, restaurants and hotels were not allowed to enter.
In public places in Japan, notices prohibiting tattooists from entering are everywhere
Even now that the Yamaguchi group is seriously aging, and even if the young gang members have learned to be clever and ill-tattooed, these notices have been preserved to this day and can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys of Japan. Tattooed people also want to take a bath and swim, what can I do? Yes, but you must wrap the tattoo tightly with a bandage, if you tattoo the whole back, then sorry, you can only trouble you to mummify it before going into the water.
In 21st-century Japan, tattoos are still seen as a big problem.
Suppressed love
Tara Moss, a female writer and tattoo enthusiast, returned from a trip to Japan and described in her travelogue an experience in which she wore a summer suit on the subway, her tattoos were unobstructed, and a cool boy in the same carriage showed a fascinated expression after seeing it, but he didn't say anything, just silently rolled up her sleeves and showed a small part of her tattoo.
Tara Moss meets a tattooed boy on a subway in Japan
Image source: taramoss.com
"It was one of my favorite moments on my trip." Tara wrote in his travelogue.
In other parts of the world, tattoos are becoming more popular and common, and it is used as a symbol of fashion or a symbol of attitude. But in Japan, a country that has suppressed and discriminated against tattoos for hundreds of years, tattoo lovers can do not show off and show off, but hide as much as possible. More often, they are just like this boy in the subway, and when they meet a good friend, they will tacitly say a secret code.
When Tara travels in Japan, she often receives curious glances from many people
John M Skutlin, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Japanese Studies at the University of Chinese in Hong Kong, has studied the link between tattoos and shame culture in Japan. In an interview, Ichiro, a perforator from Tokyo, pointed to his wrist, "I will not cross this 'line,'" said Ichiro, who said that Japanese people rarely tattoo where their clothes cannot cover. "Japanese society is too 'narrow' and troublesome. If I didn't live in Japan, I would dare to tattoo my neck, hands, and even my face. ”
Another tattooist, Satoshi, suffered a lot in his daily life because he crossed the "line" of his wrist. His tattoo spread from his neck all the way to his fingers. When dealing with people, he has to wear gloves, which is more likely to make people suspicious. He always hit a wall when renting a house, and when a real estate agent contacted him, the first sentence was always, "I found a house and called, but the landlord hates tattoos..."
Still, there are many young Japanese who are attracted to this subculture. According to a survey by Japanese tattooist Yamamoto Yoshimi, the number of Japanese tattoo artists has increased from about 250 in the 1990s to 3,000-5,000 today, and Western-style tattoos have gradually replaced traditional hand-stamped tattoos. Even if they still have to face the different eyes of others, more and more people are willing to go into the tattoo studio and tattoo important content on their bodies.
Even, many women have begun to get tattoos. For example, RieYoshihara, a 33-year-old in Saitama Prefecture, tattooed a bodhisattva image on his entire back. "I think it's very promising that Japanese people accept tattoos like Europeans do." Ji Lihui said that it was just that she did not dare to show her tattoo to her father.
Yoshinori is tattooing large pieces of bodhisattvas onto her body.
Source: Reuters
In the eyes of Tattoo lovers in Japan, the just-past Tokyo Olympics gave them hope. Athletes can generously display tattoos in public in Japan while striving to win honors for their country on the field. This may cause many Japanese to change their impression and dispel their prejudices about tattoos, which can also represent a positive and positive image.
They look forward to the day when taboos are broken, tattoos no longer become a source of shame for Japanese people, and tattoos can walk in the sun with honor.
Source: Vista World Faction