Tattoos in the Edo Period

In the Edo period - 1603-1868 - Japanese tattoo drawings became a part of ukiyo-e - the suspended world culture. Prostitutes - yujos - of the pleasure quarters used tattoos to improve the individuals prettiness for customers. Skin tattoos were furthermore used by labourers and firemen.

From 1720 on, the tattooing of criminals became an legitimate punishment and replaced taking away of the nose and the ears. The criminal received a ring ink around the arm in support of every offence or else a character ink on his temple. Tattooing criminals was continued until 1870, at what time it was abolished by the new Meiji government of the Japanese Emperor.

This visible punishment produced a further genre of outcasts which had no place taking part in society and nowhere to go. A lot of these outlaws were ronin - master less samurai warriors. They had no alternatives than organizing gangs. These men created the start of the yakuza - the controlled criminals inside Japan inside the twentieth century.