Today more and more people, both men and women, are getting traditional Japanese tattoos. It is common now to find a woman with a large quarter sleeve tattoo design of a koi carp. Women are also tending to get large cherry blossoms, and chrysanthemum tattoos. On the male side of things it’s not uncommon to also see large koi, large samurai tattoos and other traditional Japanese designs.
However, how many of these people know the roots of the tattoo design or the art of tattooing in Japan? I have heard lots of them say, “Well I got the tattoo because it looked cool”. It is the same thing with many of the traditional tribal tattooing like Celtic, Hawaiian and Polynesian tattoos. Which brings me back to the question again. Should you know something about the history of the tattoo or is it completely irrelevant and as long as the design looks good you can assign your own meaning and significance to it?
This is a good question that, of course, will have supporters on both sides of the fence. However, being somewhat of a traditionalist, being into my martial arts (specifically karate) and having a father who was born in Japan I often wonder whether the person knows the meaning of, or the story behind, the design of their large traditional Japanese tattoos. One of the worst offences is the infamous Japanese Kanji tattoo that is written backwards or incorrectly or does not even translate into anything that makes sense. You may have guessed that I lean towards the traditional side of the debate and feel a person should really do their research and find out as much as they can about the tattoo.
I have a Japanese dragon on my arm and made sure I knew as much as I could about the mythology, tradition and history before I got it inked. In fact I’ve written an article about it already. I am currently researching my next tattoo, which will feature either two small Japanese birds perching on bamboo stalks or a heron lurking in the reeds. This tattoo will cover a large part of my back. I want the birds themselves to be authentic as I am also a keen birdwatcher ? it would simply drive me mad if I knew the birds were either not a valid Japanese species or a traditional Japanese subject.