Didn’t get any tattoos there, or you would have heard about it by now.

They’re actually really taboo over there. I was unable to visit any onsen (hot springs) or water parks or anything. Everything strictly forbade tattooed people, because of the association with yakuza. I’m American, female, and have cutesy tattoos – totally not Japanese organized crime material – but the ban is universal. It’s not just that they’re trying to keep out yakuza and the rest of us suffer, though. Tattoos are actually frowned upon generally because of the yakuza association.

I was in Tokyo every weekend for three months, and I think I saw all of two tattoo parlors there, and very few tattooed people. I remember one parlor in Harajuku, the absurd fashion district, and that’s where there were people with tattoos, too. Other than that – zero, zip, zilch.

I did get to experience a semi-public bath, because I was staying in a dorm with college students, and their bathing room included a shallow bath. It was turned on at 6pm every evening, and a couple of times I went to sit in it – I checked with a student I trusted to make sure that would be okay. She said nobody would care, and sure enough nobody did. The first time I took out my nipple barbells because I was a little self-conscious about them, but after that I left them in. I still kind of held my arms up over my breasts, though. The whole “naked in a public bathroom” thing is strange to Americans! They don’t even care – they chat, text on their phones, and do whatever while sitting around showering and bathing naked. But even though I have no problems with nudity generally (aside from loathing my fat body…wish I was back at my 18-year-old weight, ha), I still found the experience very strange. It was hard not to stare at the other girls, because we Americans have so few opportunities to see others nude. And it’s even stranger to see them in public after that – especially those who were in my tutoring sessions! Of course, they didn’t mind, but it sure was strange to me.

So anyway, yeah, Japan is not big on tattoos. When a group of my students came to DC in September, I showed them around town and we happened to pass a tattoo parlor – Jinx Proof, where I got my ILY sign on my arm. I showed them the tattoo, and one girl wanted to know how much it cost. I told her it was a while ago, but I thought about $300. She said “oh wow, mine was only $30 in Thailand!” I said you have a tattoo?! Sure enough, she lifted her shirt just a couple of inches and pushed her pants down a bit, and there was a butterfly the size of a half-dollar on her hip. Nothing that couldn’t be covered with a band-aid, I guess, if she wants to use onsen or a water park. But I was very surprised to see she had it…wish I had known that when I was in Japan!