Japanese Style

Whether for fashion, religious, or social reasons, tattoos have been part of human history for thousands of years. In East Asia, the earliest evidence of tattoos was found on haniwa, a type of Japanese clay figurines that were placed on top of funeral mounds or outside tomb areas for protective purposes. The tattooed faces of the haniwa showed that altering one’s appearance by inserting pigments into the skin was a commonly accepted practice between the third and sixth century CE. Yet, across the centuries, Japanese society fluctuated between accepting tattoos, banning the practice, and using certain symbols as a way to brand and identify criminals. The history of Japanese tattoos is not only connected to Japanese art in various forms (theatre, woodblocks, and literature) but also to the socio-political changes that have occurred in Japan through the centuries.