Quote:
Originally Posted by edelweiss
What westerners think of and admire as the traditional Japanese style tattoo is what's frowned upon in Japan because of the associated social meanings related to gang membership. If you decided to get Russian mafia prison tattoos because they appealed to you it would cause you some social trouble in Moscow too, tattoos have very specific social meanings depending on motif all over the world.
What seems to be more accepted in Japan are "fashion" tattoos which would be tattoos done in a western style or with imagery not related to what is found in the tattoos of Japanese gang members. So a girl with a tattoo of a unicorn on her ankle would provoke less apprehension than a guy with a back covered in samurai.
Still, you are not living in Japan so you don't have to live under those social constraints.
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Thanks for the great explanation, edelweiss.
P.S. Beautiful weather today in SF, eh?
(I moved here last summer)