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

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?

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.

Were tattoos always frowned upon?

Associating tattoos with deviance is not natural or inevitable, says Davey. In fact, tattooing was ubiquitous among some Chinese minorities and was a visual marker of their ethnic identity.

While these ethnic groups were not seen as criminals, Han Chinese did view them as uncivilised, in part because of their tattoos, says DeMello, who is also an anthropologist and human-animal studies scholar.

Girls from the Derung tribe had geometric designs tattooed on their faces at puberty as a sign of maturity. Among the Dai, men were inked on the body, while the women had tattoos on the hands, face or arms.

For the Li women, and the Ainu minority of Japan, tattoos were considered a marriage requirement. The Ainu wore lip tattoos and believed that the tattoos have protective and magical qualities.

“After the rise of the Communist Party, tattooing, even among China’s ethnic minorities, came under fire, as did all of the other cultural practices associated with the minorities,” says DeMello.

Chinese ethnic groups have now taken on Han perspectives on body art, says Davey. They obtain tattoos to stand out from others, unlike in the past when doing so symbolised belonging and conformity.

How have attitudes towards tattoos changed today?

“Tattooing in East Asia is far more acceptable today, in part thanks to the role Japanese tattooing played in the Western tattoo renaissance that began in the 1980s,” says DeMello. “Older people in some Asian countries still look down on tattooing due to its history, but among the youth, tattoos are becoming much more popular.”

She says punitive tattoos may have led to decorative tattooing in Japan, as members of the underclass tried to disguise its original meaning, eventually giving rise to Japanese tattooing as a highly developed art form.

It remained disapproved of by authorities until 1948, when tattoos were legalised. By then, DeMello says tattooing was so far underground that most Japanese would not consider being inked.

Today, tattoo wearers in Japan and South Korea are banned from most public baths and swimming pools to keep gangsters out. Tattooing without a medical licence is also illegal in these countries.

However, that might soon change in Japan, with a landmark ruling in September that concluded tattooing is an art, not a medical act, thus not requiring a medical licence.

In China, tattoos are valued in its youth subcultures, says Davey. “People I have interviewed tend to put the negative connotations of tattoos aside in favour of positive meanings of coolness and fashion. They admire tattooed celebrities and sportspeople on Chinese media,” explains Davey, who is currently also a visiting professor at Yunnan Normal University in China.

In China there is no minimum age for getting a tattoo, but considerable efforts have been taken to curb their popularity. Inked actors are banned or censored on television. Soccer players have to wear long sleeves to cover their body art.

On the no-tattoo policy for taxi drivers in Lanzhou, Davey says: “The news in Lanzhou is perhaps not surprising considering that tattoo wearers in China already experience difficulties finding some types of jobs, certainly in the government and even in some factories.”

DeMello says: “Things are still shifting, with some Japanese firms and local governments banning tattoos for employees. But ultimately, these practices won’t work and tattoos will continue to grow in importance in China and Japan.”