It's all Bazooka Bubble Gum's fault! They used to put tattoos in with every piece of gum. All you did was lick the back of your hand several times and stick the illustrated paper on it until it transferred after a few seconds. And there you have it - a "gateway" tattoo.

Only private pools or hot springs occasionally have signs saying no tattoos. This is aimed at keeping Yakuza, who are often heavily traditionally tattooed from entering. I have never experienced this, probably as I am foreigner I am ignored.
I only go to public baths far from my home and wear a swimming vest when I go to public pools.

There was recently a "witch hunt" in a major city, Osaka, All the public workers were asked if they had tattoos, those with visible tattoos were reassigned to jobs where they would not meet members of the public or asked to remove their tattoos.

I get tattoos as I like the traditional Japanese art form. The tattoo I am getting now has taken over 1 year, I still have a couple of sessions to go. Probably no one will see my tattoo but me and my immediate family.

Right, but if you go to a spa-world or super sento or public swimming pool is it okay? It should be but it's Japan so rules are rules.

About 15 years agot the Air Force made a serious attempt to restrict and curb visible tatoos among uniformed personnel. Tattoos had already started to become more mainstream within the youth culture and I guess senior leadership at the highest level was concerned. Anyway, the policies immediately changed how military photographs for special duty applications, awards, etc. were taken -- short sleeved shirt was required instead of full service with coat. We had a troop at that time that had to cover a small tattoo with a bandaid every day. Tattoos are more accepted now by the Air Force but the regulations still dictate how much tattoo can be visible when the member is in uniform. This causes a lot of problems, though, for choosing photographs for publication because you either have to try to interpret the regulation or avoid showing tattoos at all. Our office chooses the second option.

The other day our videographer--an older gentleman who served as a combat medic in Viet Nam--came back from a shoot at a base picnic frustrated that "I bet 75% of the people on this base have a tattoo!" which made most of his footage unusable. He's expressed before his shock that so many young people have tattoos. I've had to trash many of my 'best' photos because of visible tattoos we noticed in the images later; we always have avoid offending a conservative public that might still associate tattoos with gangs and convicts, but we also have to worry about messages within tattoos that someone else might either recognize or misunderstand.

Tattoos don't do anything for me personally. It struck me the other day that a beautiful young barrista with 'sleeves' looked like she had gangrenous third-degree burns on both arms, there was so much red, black and green ink.

I bet you're not having them applied with the traditional Yakuza method.

Depends. If the spa or pool is not privately owned then no problem, they can't refuse you admittance, discrimination and all that. Of course private pools and spas can decide who to admit like any other establishment.

But, I have never had any problem. I don't live in a major city which may be a contributing factor.

There are very few tattoo artist who use the traditional method, I read somewhere that there are only a handful still practicing in Japan. The artist I go to tattoos Yakusa.

Considered it a few times. My rule always was, if I thought of some tattoo I wanted, I had to wait a full year before having it done.

Twelve odd years later, I still don't have any tattoos. Usually an idea lasts about a month before I think better of it.

I absolutely don't understand tattoos. I have never seen a tattoo that looked better than bare skin. I guess that means I'm finally getting old lol.

I think it's going to come full circle. There'll be so many people with tattoos that finding someone without them will become more alluring. It really isn't a sign of rebellion anymore, if anything, it's a form of conformity with what the rest of the planet is doing.

Personally, I have a fear of needles that borders on the pathological and unreasonable, so it's never been a worry for me. Just the sight of one makes me break out in a cold sweat. My wife considers them distasteful because her ex-husband had a whole bunch of them and his name is Rick spelled with a silent 'p'. I consider her sexy enough that spoiling the canvas with a tattoo is akin to a moustache on the Mona Lisa with a Sharpie laundry marker.

I think I read somewhere that tattoo removal is somewhat of its own cottage industry in plastic surgery now and it's growing even faster. Their clientele consists largely of young people, mostly females ages 21-27.

http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/163963586.html

And then there's this:

http://rt.com/art-and-culture/news/tattoo-ban-japan-job-082/

Yeah, here it is, a 32% percent rise in tattoo removal procdures over last year.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120...7CEntertainment