Prior to 500 body decoration tattoo was a privilege of emperors, but later it became a punishment for criminals.
For many centuries the people of ancient Japan used the art of tattooing for decorative body modifications. But in the seventh century, the rulers adopted the Chinese custom of tattooing people with the purpose of criminal punishment.
For millennia tattoos have noted the rogue. As a rule, figures were applied in a prominent place – on the face or hands, that the testimony about past sins of the person.
Tattooing with the purpose of punishment is still out of fashion, even began to revive decorative and artistic tattoo. But the drawings on the body are still associated with criminality.
In 1805 came the Japanese translation of the Chinese novel “the water margin” (Suikoden). The book was illustrated with sumptuous color engravings, in which the heroes wore tattoos with intricate patterns of flowers, animals and fairy tale characters. The novel was hugely popular and caused an unprecedented interest in such tattoos.
Despite their high popularity, tattooing was officially outlawed for adverse effects on public morality. The ban is strictly operated in the Meiji era. In those days, the patterning on the body of the Japanese was likened to the inhabitants of the “barbarian West.”
But many Japanese continued to apply the tattoo in underground salons. The art of the tattoo became associated with gangsters, the Yakuza, for which the painful and illegal process of drawing complex tattoos were considered a symbol of courage and commitment to a criminal lifestyle.
Most travelers from the West have fascinated local tattoos. During a trip to Japan, the future Tsar Nicholas II and king George V got a tattoo on the forearms in the form of dragons.
Although now tattoos in Japan is not prohibited, the subject remains sensitive. Many of them are still associated with the world of crime, so in the public baths and hot springs have often denied the tattooed customers.
