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Tattoos and Piercings... Your personal experiences?

Kanpai Quigley

Sophia University Hopeful
21 Dec 2006
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Alright, as anyone in the U.S. knows, coming across someone with tattoos and/or piercings is more commonplace than coming across someone without. I am a big fan of getting ink done, and I plan on getting many more tattoos than what I already have (2 on my arm that aren't visible with a t-shirt on.) I'm also into piercings, and have been wanting to get both sides of my lower lip done for a while now ("snake bites") but my job wouldn't allow it...

My question is this - are piercings and tats still as taboo in Japan as my Nihongo professor seemed to think they were about a decade ago? I was told to hide my tattoos at all times, because I would be affiliated with organized crime. I am aware of the traditional Yakuza tattoo, but come on... people outside of Japan's crime families have got to have SOME tattoos, right?

If I'm moving to Tokyo in March, should I SERIOUSLY hold off on getting any more work done? Will any visible tattoos/piercings have detrimental effects on possible jobs, relationships, etc? I find that girls here in the States are often turned on by tattoo'd and pierced guys, but I feel like Japanese girls might run away screaming if I took my shirt off and revealed my ink.

Anyone have personal experience with this situation? Any Japanese that could lend some insight?

Thanks so much ;)
 
From my experience tattoos and piercings wont be seen poorly by people but are very unprofessional so they MAY affect your chances of getting certain employment.
 
Good ol granny !

I must have heard it a million times...."If you get a tatoo, you can never be President!". As a teen all I heard is you will get hepititis or syph from those "filthy" places. Then when I got out on my own, I just didn't fancy getting anything stuck into me by choice, fear of pain I guess? Guess I'll go to my grave a "holeless" and unpainted canvas.

Uncle Frank

😊
 
As long as you can cover them up you'll be fine, as anywhere else. The Yakuza association probably exists in some people's minds, but I wouldn't say that is more so than in other countries regarding criminal elements. Foreigners are 'different' anyway...

Actually tats are quite popular in Japan amongst the law-abiding youth, and a lot of girls have them (big ones too, not the tiny, petite love hearts and roses that girls in the West usually get). They won't run away when they see yours and some girls will think you are exciting.
 
If you look foreign and you're in Japan you are generally considered a weird creature. Having a tattoo and piercings on top of that merely confirms your weirdness. So if you're going to be weird, what the hell, you might as well be really weird.

Having said that most of the foreign people that come to Japan are fairly 'normal' looking. And given the common Japanese image of a clean cut, smart business type foreign person, if you had visible piercings and tattoos, I wouldn't fancy your chances at employment. This saying is as true in Japan as everywhere else: The only difference between a tattooed person and a person who isn't tattooed is that a tattooed person doesn't care if you're tattooed or not.

Anyway, tattoos and piercings are fairly common nowadays in Japan, so no one is going to run screaming when you lift your shirt...unless there's something else under there you haven't mentioned!!!

There's a similar thread here
 
LOL Weird creature, awesome i think ill get down on all 4s and "ook oo Ooh Ooh".
A lot of Tatoos, hmmm nice, your style is your style, I plan on getting my ears and eyebrow pierced by this new year, yes sir!

I say go for it, plus if its that serious of a nuisance, isnt it possible to remove such(i'm ignorant doh)?
 
They don't appeal to me. Won't be getting either. Can't see the point in tattoos,would likely change my mind before the tattoo fades...
 
Nice thread. I was also interested in this topic. I have another way of seeing the situation. What if you have piercings, let's say many in your ears for example, and you take them off, go to a job interview, get hired by the employers and then in a few days you show up at work with your piercings put back on. Will they fire you or something? As for tatoos, if you always keep them covered, do they check if you have any tatoos carved in your skin when you try to get a job somewhere?
 
Please when I went to Japan, I saw SO many piercings. A few tattos but Yea ALOT of peircings. BUT it was probally where I was and the age group. Although I did see an older lady with her friends on a train who Had Died 2 tone hair, and her ears where full of Holes.

I have a Tatoo, and a Piercing, I am black and have Afro, so I get my fair share of staring, but never any mistreatment. I find it all amusing.

I know at Nova, you arent allowed to wear any jewelry besides a wedding ring. And I whenever I move to Japan I will probally just use a retainer at work.
 
Well if you have piercings and tattoos better make sure you are going to a big major city. the people in the country side will stare you enough without those piercings and tatoos.
 
I don't think any gaijin is in danger of being mistook for a member of the Yakuza, but just like anywhere there will be some people who like them and some who don't...

You'll get plenty of stares just for being foreign (depending on where you are), and you'll be ignored other places just the same...

Japan produces this idea that you'll either be reviled or adored... Depending on where you go, either of those things will happen.
 
I don't quite understand this. They can think you are a member of the Yakuza if you have a certain model of tatoo that only the members of the Yakuza have or all kinds of tatoos are associated with the Yakuza?
 
I don't quite understand this. They can think you are a member of the Yakuza if you have a certain model of tatoo that only the members of the Yakuza have or all kinds of tatoos are associated with the Yakuza?
Like I said, I think it's a fading myth that Japanese people might think a foreigner is a member of Yakuza... but they may just simply associate the idea of tattoos with Yakuza, and apply the same negative connotations with that particular person as they do with Yakuza.
 
if you have a butterfly on your ankle (or a tramp stamp), you probably won't be confused for a crime lord. Please refer to common sense for further inquiries.
 
No, no butterfly on my ankle, but I was planning on geting a big dragon tatoo. I'm still thinking about it, it's not decided yet, but one thing is for sure: if I ever get a tatoo it will be a big black dragon.
 
No, no butterfly on my ankle, but I was planning on geting a big dragon tatoo. I'm still thinking about it, it's not decided yet, but one thing is for sure: if I ever get a tatoo it will be a big black dragon.
Good lord, why? So you can look like a proprietor of a house of ill repute?

That katana, hakama, dragon tattoo combination does however take you so far into overboard-land, that you push straight through right into crazy-town.
 
From my father's experience with tattoos, I have decided not to get them. Back in the 1930's he had a girlfriend that he was to get married to called Mary. Mary's name was tattooed to my father's shoulder in a heart shape. Mary died in a street car accident before they got married, my mother's name is Ruth. Maybe you can remove them now but then and when I was younger in my twenties some thirty year ago you could not. So I did not want to have something I that was perminate and may not want in the future. As far as piercings goes, no thanks, it is not part of my generation.
 
yukio_michael: Dragons are my favorite and I've wanted a dragon tatoo ever since I was very very small.
 
I personally would not even think about getting tatooted in Japan. I have my doubts even if you can take tatoo as foreigner here.
 
yukio_michael: Dragons are my favorite and I've wanted a dragon tatoo ever since I was very very small.
Life is all about learning to do things because they are good choices for our lives, and the lives of others, not just because we desire to do it.

If you're living outside of Japan, I don't think there's any harm in this, other than looking like an overly obsessed wee bee, but regardless of what people say about the acceptance of tattoos in modern Japan, I just don't think a huge dragon tattoo is a great idea...

It's your life though, do what thou wilt.
 
well I wouldn't get one, but It doesn't bother me much to see people with tattoos... I think they are cool... but it is true, you can get a disease from piercing you know... down there (runs away) I also like Dragons but probably tigers more...
 
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