getting a tattoo in japan

Djon

TAG Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2017
Messages
13
Reaction score
10
Does anybody know where you can get a Tattoo around tokyo?
Can you share the place and how was your experience there as a gaidin(or a customer)
 
There are quite a few places around Tokyo that could help you. I can't speak to their service personally, but I've had friends go to these:
http://www.threetidestattoo.com/
http://www.muscat-tattoo.com/en/
Expect to pay more than you would at a parlor in the states. Usually you will contact them, work our a concept, they will work on a draft and go back and forth with you on the design. I think you need to put a deposit in first so you don't flake out on them after the drafting process. My friends had good experiences with both with no Japanese ability.
 
If money is a concern, my friend told me Osaka is way cheaper than Tokyo, possibly even worth the Shinkansen trip difference.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Majestyk
There are quite a few places around Tokyo that could help you. I can't speak to their service personally, but I've had friends go to these:
http://www.threetidestattoo.com/
http://www.muscat-tattoo.com/en/
Expect to pay more than you would at a parlor in the states. Usually you will contact them, work our a concept, they will work on a draft and go back and forth with you on the design. I think you need to put a deposit in first so you don't flake out on them after the drafting process. My friends had good experiences with both with no Japanese ability.
Thank you, i will try visiting this place
 
I don’t have any tattoos myself and I have no desire to get one, but I have noticed that there are tattoo parlors near some the US military bases in Japan. They would presumably all be used to dealing with gaijin customers.

For example, there is, or at least was, a tattoo parlor on the road between Fussa Station and Yokota Air Base. Can’t recall the name, though.
 
Tats.......yeah........keeping something forever just isn't in the cards for me.

Good choice Fussa, Yokosuka, Atsugi areas for sure.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SugoiBoy
東京都目黒のタトゥースタジオ「SPIN TATTOO」
http://www.spintattoo.com/

Specifically this guy:

KEI KITAMURA|東京都目黒のタトゥースタジオ「SPIN TATTOO」
http://www.spintattoo.com/artist/484/

It’s near Meguro Station

Your challenges would be:

A. Getting an appointment. No, it’s not one of those snooty introduction only places, but most artists have a decently-filled schedule.

B. Time to make sure whatever sketch or idea matches ... in the case of my friend, since he started with a conceptual reference point, and then a sketch, he had to go back to the artist’s sketch two times to get what he wanted. If he had been rushed, he’d have been disappointed with the final result not being exactly what he wanted.

C. Size = compLevity. Let’s say you want one of those ones that start from ya shoulder to elbow. That might take 12-15 hours of work. So, if resident in Tokyo you’d likely book one or two hour sessions spaced st least every two weeks min ( to allow healing ). However, if here only for a week or so, you really cant do it on a daily basis for more than two days without scarring, infection and fucking it up. So, instead, he sat through two back to back sessions ..maybe 5-6 hours one afternoon and the next day, a final set of 5-6 hours. Pain is subjective but I don’t think I could have handled it. That day, he flew back out of Haneda...

The dude, KEI, was really chill. From Yokohama. About 70% clients are probably foreigners ...still due to the anally-retentive societal rules that still dictate “tattoo = organized crime”. They’d probably ban this guy from the sento or onsen as most certainly his particular tattoo denotes him as a “criminal” as well as having “served time”:

Ga5KUXF.jpg
 
still due to the anally-retentive societal rules that still dictate “tattoo = organized crime”. They’d probably ban this guy from the sento or onsen as most certainly his particular tattoo denotes him as a “criminal” as well as having “served time”:

Well, that anally-retentive rule of thumb used to be correct in around 100% of the time so... And having a tattoo knowing about that image and then complaining about it sounds a bit counter productive to me.

As far as getting yourself clean just go to any of the sentos that take public subsidies and you can enter with no complaints. Many privately owned onsens prohibit all tattoos that are not covered but then again your mileage may vary. I have been sitting in a sauna in an onsen next to a guy who was tattooed literally from his ankles up to his neck. Despite there being a large sign in the entrance telling no tattoos in several different languages.

When the owner saw me he just commented "don't worry, he is a nice guy. And retired". :D
 
Well, that anally-retentive rule of thumb used to be correct in around 100% of the time so... And having a tattoo knowing about that image and then complaining about it sounds a bit counter productive to me. I mean, that sort of idiotic nitpicking represents the worst aspects of bureaucratic mindset ( not just Japan).

It’s not the case when they refuse patrons with tattoos that are obviously linked to organized crime membership (whether they are or not ) but assiduously applying the rules in cases like the white American woman with a tiny tattoo on her ankle kicked out of the La Qua spa...

A Guide to Tokyo, From an Outsider (and Insider)
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/travel/a-guide-to-tokyo-from-an-outsider-and-insider-.html

...
The memory of that suffocating lonesomeness hit me one afternoon at the Spa LaQua in Tokyo Dome City. The spa, built under a roller coaster that passes overhead every few minutes (relaxing in Tokyo has its limits), offers outdoor and indoor onsens (hot baths), earwax cleaning and a chilly room where spagoers can watch languid jellyfish bob up and down, said to aid with stress relief.

I was feeling pretty stress-free after watching the jellyfish and splurging on a $200 body scrub. But in my excitement to revisit a Japanese spa, I had forgotten to cover the tiny tattoo on my ankle with a Band-Aid. Japanese bathhouses often have a no tattoo rule, intended to keep out yakuza, the tattoo-covered members of organized crime groups in Japan, but the rule also serves the nifty purposes of keeping out clueless foreigners like me.

It’s worth explaining that my tattoo is the size of a nickel. My father hates it, but not nearly as much as the Japanese do. I was nude and stepping into the onsen when two stern Spa LaQua employees in matching pink skirt suits arrived to escort me out of the facility.

They watched over me as I put my clothes on as quickly as I could. They shook their heads in disapproval. I offered my deepest apologies in Japanese, but it didn’t matter. They told me sternly that my husband would have to leave, too, if he had a tattoo. (He doesn’t.)

I felt defeated. I had tried so hard to learn some Japanese and embrace the culture, but I still felt, at best, like an outsider. It seemed impossible for me to avoid being what is perhaps the worst thing in Japanese culture: I was a rule breaker.

As we left the spa I had a mild panic attack and pleaded with Robert to call United and get us on the next flight out of Tokyo.

“They hate us,” I said. “They don’t want us here.” He suggested we discuss it over dinner.

One bite of Taira-san’s unagi with sea salt and we decided to give Tokyo a few more days.

You’re also right that as far as sentos go, not all ban those with tats , or even yakuza for that matter. The one in Azabu Juban is pretty cool about it, and so is one in Kagurazaka. Not me, I’m still tat-free but have a [Jpn ] friend who assumed he couldn’t go... and he has the real deal forbidden type...
 
It’s not the case when they refuse patrons with tattoos that are obviously linked to organized crime membership (whether they are or not ) but assiduously applying the rules in cases like the white American woman with a tiny tattoo on her ankle kicked out of the La Qua spa...

Think about it for a moment. Which one is easier to enforce; the ban of all tattoos or the ban of yakuza tattoos? Do you want to be the reception worker that is being told by a member of organised crime group that his tattoo is not linked to yakuza and that's why he gets to enter?

Exactly the same situation when some elevator parking towers refused to park foreign cars.