Japanese Tattoos

A Historical Look at Japanese Tattoos

Although there is archeological evidence of Japanese tattoos dating nearly two millenia before Christ, the practice has not always been looked upon favorably within the culture.

The earliest residents of Japan likely used primitive tattoos to express spirituality and status, similar to many other ancient cultures. However, somewhere along the way, tattoos became a popular method of branding criminals, and so they tended to take on a negative connotation among the populace, even if the tattoo design wasn't related to either crime or punishment. At one point, the Japanese government even outlawed the practice entirely.

Today, Japanese tattoos are gaining a good deal of popularity around the rest of the globe, mainly due to the outstanding artistic designs and related symbolism involved. Yet in Japan, the practice is still viewed with something of a jaundiced eye by the upper classes as a practice fit only for the lower classes, street walkers, and gangsters. Only time will tell if these preconceptions will change.

Japanese Tattoo Basics

Tattoos are generally created using various images, words, and numbers, or varying combinations of each.

While Japanese tattoos, also referred to by the terms Irezumi, and Horimono, are certainly beautiful, they can be complicated to create and understand because there is no actual alphabet for the Japanese language. Rather, written communication is a collection of symbols representing sounds or general concepts.

For this reason, it's important to have a basic understanding of Japanese characters and writing styles to guide you in your choices. You'd also do well to find yourself a tattoo artist who has extensive knowledge and expertise with the Japanese language, and its attached symbolism.

Characters

Patience

There are three separate groups of characters used in Japanese writing:

• Katana is a series of characters developed by Buddhist monks. The style is sharp, and somewhat masculine, owing to the fact that it was developed by men. Katana is used to represent sounds, so these symbols must be grouped together appropriately to achieve any real meaning.
• Hiragana characters also represent sounds, but these characters have a decidedly feminine look, not surprising since they were developed by women during the Heian period.

As you might guess, since Katana and Hiragana carry gender connotations, the style chosen is very important to the message you want to convey with your tattoo.

A particularly popular practice is to assemble a collection of these symbols to create a tattoo of one's name in Japanese; however, since there are no Japanese equivalents to some of the letter sounds found in other languages, it's hard to be completely accurate in the translation.

• Finally, we come to the third and perhaps most popular set of Japanese characters, Kanji. Actually originated by the Chinese and adopted in Japan, these characters are used to convey concepts of love, yuuki.htm courage, heiwa.htm peace, and so much more. They are complex, yet beautiful, and they turn choosing a symbol for your tattoo into a fairly straightforward business.

Writing Styles

Just as there are block and cursive lettering styles in English writing, there are also three main writing styles used to create Japanese characters.

• Kaisho, is the Japanese equivalent of block style.
• Gyousho, is the equivalent of cursive style.
• Sousho, is an extreme form of cursive, perhaps the equivalent of fanciful Old English lettering.

Just as you might pick out a certain font style for a written page, you can choose from these writing styles to give a particular look to any characters used in your tattoo.

Japanese Artwork

If you decide you'd rather not delve into the intricacies of a foreign language, you could pass on characters altogether, and opt for some fabulous artwork instead.

There is such a delicate beauty to Japanese art that makes it a wonderful inspiration for many Japanese tattoos. Old-style wood block carvings of dragons, cranes, koi, blossoms, Bonsai, shoguns and geishas are just some of the images you'll find that have been successfully transported into the tattoo medium.

Conclusion

As you can see, the process of getting a Japanese tattoo is a bit more involved than just walking into a shop and asking for one. It's important to understand what you want, and to find an artist who can not only can provide you with a quality image, but who also has a deeper understanding of Japanese language and culture to ensure the accuracy of any symbolism you might choose. After all, your tat will be a permanent part of your body for the rest of your life, so you want to be sure it's done right.

External Links

• JapanesTranslator.com.uk, a fun sight to help you figure out your name in Japanese.
• dsfy.com, a great site full of images, and assistance with accurate translations.
• OrientalOutpost.com, a collection of Japanese artwork sure to provide inspiration for your tattoo designs.
• Samurai Tattoo Designs, Japanese tattoo designs, Kanji symbols and name translations.

• Celebrity Tattoo Pictures
• Cross Tattoos
• Star Tattoos
• Wrist Tattoos
• Heart Tattoos

• Japanese Symbol Tattoos
• Japanese Dragon Tattoos
• Kanji Tattoos
• Arm Tattoos
• Asian Dragon Tattoos

• Body Painting Gallery
• Scorpio Tattoo Gallery
• Body Piercing Gallery
• How many tattoos do you have?
• Celebrity Tattoo Quiz