Nice Ink!

The art of tattooing goes back thousands of years and has been cultivated by many cultures worldwide for a whole host of different purposes; marking criminals and outcasts; showing spiritual devotion; highlighting rites of passage; expressing wealth, beauty, and fertility; the list goes on.

The symbolism and impact of tattoos varies between places and cultures, but surely no culture has a more strained relationship with the concept of tattooing than the Japanese. A longstanding taboo in Japan, tattooing has been associated with the yakuza and the criminal underworld. Yet the undeniable beauty of traditional Japanese tattoo art is admired globally. The Japanese word irezumi means “insertion of ink” and can refer to tattoos using tebori, the traditional Japanese hand method (as featured on page 8), or a Western method with a tattoo gun. Wabori means “traditional Japanese tattoo” and another word used for traditional Japanese tattoo designs is horimono.

The word “tatu” or yobori is used by Japanese to mean non-Japanese styles of tattooing, and these days, “fashion tattoos” are becoming more of a thing in Japan (see page 6). So, whether you want to book an appointment with a tattoo artist here, or simply pay a compliment, KS has you covered with the phrases below.