Explainer | Why tattoos are still frowned upon in East Asia, even as young people embrace them

A Chinese city’s recent ban on taxi drivers having tattoos is a reminder of the widespread disapproval of body art that prevails in parts of East Asia

Young people have embraced tattooing, seeing it as art, but the Confucian value of filial piety, and tattoos’ connotation with crime and punishment, hold sway

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Yakuza gang members show their tattoos at a festival in Tokyo. In East Asia’s conservative societies, body art is associated with criminals, despite its embrace by young people. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:45am, 2 Oct 2020Updated: 7:58am, 2 Oct 2020

Tattoos may be increasingly embraced by young people in China, particularly in cities like Shanghai, which has a burgeoning tattoo scene, yet age-old prejudices against those with inked skin prevail in many parts of Chinese society.

In Lanzhou, a city in Gansu province, northwest China, authorities implemented a no-tattoo rule in August, ordering taxi drivers to remove their tattoos for good. One driver voiced his objections in an online government forum, sparking discussions about the acceptance of tattoos in China.

In countries like Japan and South Korea too, attitudes towards tattoos are changing, but the view prevails among social conservatives that they have unsavoury connotations.

Why are tattoos stigmatised in East Asian countries?

In Japan, tattoos have long been associated with organised crime and the yakuza. Photo: Shutterstock

Body art has long been frowned upon in these countries for its association with deviance or gang membership. In Japan, tattoos are linked to the yakuza.

“In Chinese history, tattoos were used to denigrate ethnic minorities, punish criminals and brand slaves,” says Gareth Davey, an anthropologist and social psychologist at Webster University Thailand. Tattooing goes against the Confucian values of filial piety and avoidance of injury to the body, as it is given by one’s parents. These cultural beliefs are common to Japanese and Korean societies too.

Tattoos were associated with criminality and used as punishment in Japan during the Kofun period (AD300 to 538), says Margo DeMello, author of Inked: Tattoos and Body Art Around the World. China governed the region at that time.