The Japanese have been practicing the art of tattooing since the fourth or fifth century. Early users of the ancient art first bore such markings to distinguish social class and to ward off bad spirits. Criminals were later tattooed on the face for punishment and have since become the primary customer of tattoos in Japan. (Mansfield, 1999, 30.1).

In Japan tattoos started as stigmata on the foreheads of criminals, who later camouflaged the tags with ornate designs. The 19th-century artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi made a series of prints based on the Suikoden, a Chinese novel about a Robin Hoodish gang of outlaws. Soon these prints were copied onto the backs of common laborers and even royalty (British kings Edward VII and George V had them; so did Czar Nicholas II). To this day most Japanese tattoos are inspired by Kuniyoshi. Still, the Meiji government outlawed tattoos in the late 19th century, a ban that remained in effect past World War II. Tattoos again became the private province of outlaws and the yakuza, or gangsters. Today, thanks to years of government suppression, there are perhaps 300 tattoo artists in Japan, hazards Kunihiro Shimada, president of the Japan Tattoo Institute. By contrast, the U.S. has 15,000 parlors, pulling in $450 million a year. (Fulford, 2004, 210-212)