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Deicide · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:36 pm Post subject: Tatoos in Japan...

I wanted to open this thread because I am worried about the tatoo situation on Japan, i.e. one will be banned from everything and viewed as a yakuza. For example no joining a gym with tatoos? I have a whole bunch, which can all be covered up with longish sleeved t-shirts or long sleeved shirt and pants. My whole upper back is tatooed my shoulders, my entire chest and my right calf and I have a nipple piercing and to top it off 3 earings. I am panicing because I can cover them up but what if I am in the changing room or taking a shower at the gym? I apparently won't be allowed to join at all, huh? I need the scoop from people in the know...cheers all, D

callmesim · Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 279 Location: London, UK

This issue has been discussed before many times:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=27572

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=8474

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=11336

I've had students with tattoos, worked with someone with heaps of tattoos, and seen people in the street with tattoos.

Whatever you do, don't cut the tips of your fingers off. That'll mark you more as yakuza than any tattoo!

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

The piercing won't matter even in places that disallow tattoos (the Japanese are just too unfamiliar with that sort of thing to have created any rules against it)...

As for the tattoos... Sounds like (due to the size and number of what you have) you're just going to have to find places where they won't care/mind that you have them. Period. Stay away from small towns -- larger cities are much more likely to have a larger selection of facilities from which to choose.

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

I think your biggest problem is that you are big on working out right? So finding a sports club that will let you in. It`s certainly going to limit your options. I suggest looking for a gym that is owned/managed or at least caters for foreigners although outside the big cities it might be hard.

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

callmesim · Joined: 27 Oct 2005 Posts: 279 Location: London, UK

wolfman · Joined: 18 Jan 2006 Posts: 189

Concerning the way Yakuza are seen in Japan, I thought the following was an interesting article.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers196.html

NorthofAmerica · Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 187 Location: Recovering Expat

I was worried about the tattoo situation as well before I got here and I have found it to be generally exaggerated. The gym thing might be a problem and I wouldn't go to a hot spring though. People will often be a little leary of you once they see your tattoos but for the most part it is no big deal. You are a foreigner so no one will think you are in the yakuza and in general I find people express more of a guarded interest than outright disdain for tattoos. I live in a small town and have not had a problem yet. Kids love them. Every time a student catches a glimpse of the one on my forearm they want to touch it and will yell "sugoi"

Just play it by ear and be prepared for people not to like them very much.

bornslippy1981 · Joined: 02 Aug 2004 Posts: 271

The gym I go to has Japanese people with tattoos who work out there. Nobody seems to care.

The only problem I've ever had with mine is once at the gym when the lifeguard said I should cover the tattoo. I pretended I didn't understand, and nothing came about from it.

Just be friendly with the people, and they'll look beyond the body art.

Sour Grape · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 241

From reading your CV on another thread, it seems you can't speak much, if any Japanese.

I think it highly unlikely that a gaijin who can't speak Japanese (but is literate in ancient Greek) will be mistaken for a Yakuza.

Anyway, to answer your question, a lot of my foreign friends have tattoos, and have no problems going to onsens. No idea about gyms. I suggest just going about your business totally normally. Probably, nobody will bother you.

Deicide · Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2006 6:07 am Post subject:

Like a Rolling Stone · Joined: 27 Mar 2006 Posts: 872

ndorfn · Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Posts: 126

you will have loads of problems, no matter what others here have said. I only have a couple of relatively small tatts and been kicked out of onsens and gyms, made to cover them up in swimming pools and gyms.

in your case that sounds hard. thats not to say you can't find gyms that allow it.

its crazy, and it pisses me off. many times I asked people, "how many foreign yakuza do you know!?"

JimDunlop2 · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 2286 Location: Japan

Yeah, I agree it sucks -- but I CAN appreciate the universality of the rule. Sure, there aren't too many foreign yakuza running around Japan, but the fact that the rules are "no tattoos period" at least says that they are looking beyond race or skin color or the shape of your eyes.

As foreigners living in Japan, on one hand we complain when there are two standards -- one for the Japanese and one for us -- we call it racism or discrimination -- but only when it suits us. When it doesn't suit us, we tend to complain that there should be exceptions made on our behalf because we aren't Japanese.

Again, I think the no tattoo rule is silly -- but I'm glad that at least they are impartial in applying that rule.

Mtnkiwi · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 67 Location: Osaka

The rules about tattoos are not anti-Yakuza, they are anti-tattoo. The fact that Yaks have tattoos is just an excuse.
The Japanese tattoo has suffered from discrimination for well more than a century, and there is not much chance this is going to change any time soon.
In Japan, tattoos are working-class (majority of those tattooed are sushi chefs, labourers etc), associated with crime (Yakuza often have tattoos) and heavily disapproved of.
Having tattoos in Japan can and will affect your freedom of movement, level of acceptance and relationships more than you'd like to think.
Gym-wise, if you swim wear a body suit (surf rash top). When you do weights etc wear something that covers your tats. Locker room-wise, hard to hide. If your gyms says no tats, and another customer complains, you'll be out.