I Walked Around Japan with Fake Tattoos

[Music] ow hello it's aki dearest so a lot of you guys know i live in japan and so i guess one of the biggest things that is pretty well known is that tattoos in japan is kind of i actually do have a tattoo on my back for those of you that don't know it's a very small one here i'll show you guys it's just like small blue tattoo that my best friend did on me before i left for japan but there's a lot of people on youtube that talk about how tattoos are stigma in japan how you can't go into onsens so i have a lot of different fake tattoos that i'm going to be putting on my body i'm going to be putting on tattoos similar to what i would want in real life so i have these it has a bunch of letters and numbers and stuff and then i want some tattoos on the fingers so i saw some of these i like this girl that's blowing bubble gum i don't know what that says but i'm just gonna put it on my chest so whatever we're using it here's one with some quotes that i also still cannot read heart over mind and courage over fear that sounds very pretentious we're gonna use it inner demon i don't know i don't know what that's supposed to represent but hand passed oh i want to use the hulksey wave this one looks pretty cool i might put it like on the back of my arm right here i found this one oh cool yeah it's like a junji ito kind of tattoo which i thought was really interesting i mean they it doesn't say that it's tommy on amazon so i don't know if this is like copyright stuff but i had to say yes to this i actually like now that i'm looking at it if i like it enough maybe i will get a tattoo somewhere and this is just like a final one i just kind of like planets um yeah it's kind of like alchemy looking i guess i feel it needs a little more like stars and stuff like that like out like alchemy alchemy yeah like install alchemy alchemy start alchemy alchemy the jrpg title that was released on june 17th and is available on both ios and google play that's right alchemy stars seamlessly merges magic and technology in both its world in combat as you know god the game's innovative combat blends rpg card collecting and strategy elements and the game's unique tile connecting gameplay allows players to what unleash special attacks when matching the character's attributes with the correct colored tiles that's right and alchemy stars further enhances its strategic gameplay by giving players the ability to change leaders multiple times allowing for a flurry tactical gameplay experience the event will last from august 19th to september 29th of this year so it's a one month event alright so let me know what your favorite character in alchemy stars is leave a comment down below if you'd like time to decorate my body i don't think i've put on a temporary tattoo since i was like 10. i actually went to an onsen like it was a few years ago but it was tattoo friendly and there was this girl that was covered in tattoos and she was like naked beside me and she was just like chilling there and i was like damn she is tatted up yeah there's more places like that right so like you know i feel like it's just it's fine oh wait i'm so stupid i didn't take off the plastic [Laughter] [ __ ] you should have tested it out with a crappy one i know [ __ ] oh [ __ ] okay oh no i'm so looking forward to the [ __ ] noise [Music] please please please please oh so clean that actually looks kind of nice i really like this one the most wow badass chick right here with all of her tats you know i had to do it to him yeah this is pretty similar to what i would get in real life if i were to like get a lot more tattoos i love this look by the way what do you think yeah those look like real tattoos really yeah do i look intimidating though yes really yeah i don't know i'm not intimidated with anyone that has like these kinds of things i think the from a job i'm talking from a japanese point of view okay yeah you look very intimidating um this one represents that i uh love to pop bubble gum this one represents alchemy stars which you can download in the description below this one represents that man um umbrellas make me [ __ ] emotional man this one represents my love for plants this one represents that you have [ __ ] dendrophilia you like you like [ __ ] plants uh this one represents the weather i wish that was today i don't smoke but that looked cool this one reminds me that i actually need to continue skyward sword when i get back home super deep meaning into my tattoos let's go so i met up with my friend rose who's going to follow me around shibuya and harajuku with the gopro so the reason i pick these two locations is not only because they're very popular with both tourists and the locals but they're also very densely populated with people so to answer the question what happens if you wear tattoos publicly in a country that has a stigma against tattoos and they just walk through fine sorry maybe you saw your sick cats [Music] [Music] yeah you're either a pikachu or an eevee person for some reason [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] yeah it's pretty anti-climactic uh not a single person ever really asked cared nor looked at my tattoos if anything it was actually still really hot that day so there were a lot of people with tattoos still walking by now does that mean that the stigma is completely gone from japan no because before someone says it i'm aware this is shibuya and harajuku that we're talking about it's in tokyo it's a very urban lifestyle which of course that means that people are on there they're probably used to seeing not only foreigners but also younger generations that have tattoos so can the same thing be said for someone that lives more in the countryside or as we call the inaka of japan so i live in tokyo i'm not gonna walk all the way to inako for you guys i'm sorry but i decided to go ask one of my really good friends sharla in japan who lives more in the countryside of what it's like with her with real tattoos now her voice is dead right now so she wrote her little story here that i'm just going to read for you guys i have small roses on my inner ankle a small tattoo on my forearm and quite a large piece on my ribs i've lived in japan for 16 years now and in general having tattoos doesn't really affect my daily life in japan they're in places that can be easily covered up if necessary so i don't have any problems with work sometimes i wear clothes that show them in public and i've only ever gotten a handful of comments on them and they're always positive girls have come up to me and said my tattoo is cool and asked to see more and where i got it done etc i think most of the younger generations here see them as fashionable and are curious there's only been one time where having tattoos while living in japan really sucked i was living in tokyo and a brand new gym had just opened in my area so i went for a tour and was sitting at their reception desk filling out papers to sign up while i was signing the forms the staff noticed my ankle tattoo and asked if it was real i said yes but i can make sure it's covered at all times and said i'll wear socks that don't show it they said their rule is no tattoos and that won't make a difference and asked me to leave this isn't the rule for all gyms each place is different so you need to check the rules i live in a different prefecture now more countryside and don't have any problems with my local gym and ask for hot springs sometimes i don't mention i have tattoos and just try to hide them as many won't allow you in the public bathing areas if you do have tattoos some do though most of the time i get away with it but i've been asked to leave once many onsen resorts have private baths that you can rent out to use alone or with your friends or partner so if you have tattoos and want to enjoy the hot springs in japan check to make sure the place you're going has kashikiri o furo i can attest to a lot of things that charla said in her experience with my own so for example i used to be part of this gym here in japan and when i was signing all of the papers for it they saw the tattoo on my back and the guy said that they didn't allow tattoos but as long as it was covered up it was fine unfortunately like experiences with sharla there are gyms that just straight up won't let you even if you cover them up really good that's just the way it is and then there's some gyms out there that are completely tattoo friendly so the short of it is that if you really are that desperate to go to a gym in japan it's probably in your best interest to go research for tattoo friendly places and for the onsens i actually remember that i posted this picture of me onsen and my tattoo was showing and a lot of people were surprised about it so anyone who's interested in japan we've all heard it that if you go to an onsen you can't have tattoos so how was i able to be in this onsen with my tattoo well one that was private and this is a lot more accessible now than it has ever been and a lot of it does have to do with just the growing number of not only foreigners but the younger generation just having tattoos is that they just have private baths but if you want to be in a public one there are tattoo friendly onsens that have opened up and that's just a perfect example of just this huge shift in generations and how they view tattoos so the stigma is still in japan but i believe that it doesn't really make it unlivable if you ask me i think it's harder to be vegan in japan than it is living with tattoos but that brings up a big question that i know people are going to want to ask can i get a job in japan can i work here because admittedly me and sharla are in positions that can just work from home so it doesn't really matter but for any of you that are probably going to be working in a school or in an office obviously i don't know that experience so i'm going to ask my really good friends who do have that experience okay so these are me and joey's really good friends blue and gray blueist they are twitch streamers and they also have had some history of working in japan and they are also covered in tattoos which you guys will see soon were you both born in japan or oh okay i was i came here when i was like one i was born in hong kong but i pretty much live my whole entire life here yeah how has it been like having tattoos in japan in general even before working i think blue probably has a different experience than me because you have like hand tattoos like i have tattoos that can't i can't hide even just going to like 7-eleven or like the supermarket the whole time the cashier's just staring oh really so i would just be opening my wallet and they're staying on my hand they're like talking to my hands we don't really have too many negative experiences only maybe like onsens and the fact that you can get kicked out of that i've been hiding my tattoos from my parents for a very long time and my mom found out there's something about it man like nobody in our family has tattoos yeah like never in the history of like our family no one's got tattoos the first day i came back my first tattoo is up here right i'm a long sleeve shirt there's no way and she's like i smell something different about you no there's something moms just no yeah so would you say that the family life was a bigger reaction than you get like yeah in public it's that was probably way more awkward when you got your tattoo were you already working or not yet i was i was a student my first tattoo was uh when i was 19. okay but i i did get more as the years went by was your school okay with it yeah well at 19 you're probably in college about that so they probably don't care yeah they didn't really care so you already have tattoos how hard was it to go find a job i actually like for example like i used to model and i actually got more modeling jobs after i got my tattoos so that's kind of cool yeah yeah experience so you got kind of lucky with that i don't have any good experience when it comes to work because because you are in a more creative business what about you so mine's a little bit mine's another like it's a weird one because my job is pretty is a pretty japanese workplace i work kind of human translation so i have to i deal with a lot of you know foreign clients or people that want to go foreign like japanese companies that want to branch out i was like hey boss i gotta tell you i have tattoos like i've never shown them when i when i go to the job but i have tattoos and you know you're gonna bring me to meetings and he's like good show them no you could show them because i think it's fine and if we can't get if we can't land the job because of those then i don't think those are the clients that we need anyways right because you you want someone with an open mind i feel like they're they're a lot more lenient unless it's like a head like no hair just head-tat like full like unless it's like i feel like not even outside of japan that would be okay yeah unless unless you're going to a creative field i think it might be difficult to have tattoos you can't hide if people want to come here to teach english or something then if you can't hide your tattoos you're going to have a really hard time because most big language schools say no tattoos or you have to at least hide it a lot of jobs now especially nowadays people work at home right you know if people can get out of that mindset that tattoos are you know gang-related or any any of that kind of stuff then it's just i think it's opening it up to you know whether it be self-expression or just like you know getting art it i always felt like i needed to hide that because it was so non-japa i was always taught that that was so not japanese and i felt like i was getting further and further away from my original culture but now i know that's not true but i think and my parents also know that but um there was a good time when i like good like my college days when i started getting all the stuff and there was a point where i was like trying to figure out like am i just letting down not only my parents but the japanese culture by doing this right so i had to like yeah fight that for a while yeah one thing i want to add like the one of the biggest thing like um that my a friend actually told me was like my friend does not have tattoos but they are um they're a foreigner but they live here and the reason like they love tattoos but the reason why they don't get tattoos is because they want a kid in the future and that means you can't go you can't take them to a pool you can't take them to a water park you can't take them to anywhere that has like like you can't take them through like a family-owned center or anything yeah yeah and that's something i never thought about either so if you're someone who has like a kid or if you have a family or something and you want and if your kid wants to go to the water park you can't go how are beaches yeah you just find in japan what time they say no but sign this is no tattoo like no one actually kicks you out but we've been to the beach it's it's fine we see other people on the beach with tattoos can you see japan like in the future like just being completely okay it's gonna be a walk if you're coming to tokyo though i'm like 99 percent sure that you should be fine yeah for the most part yeah go follow blue and gray on their twitch channel if you guys would like i'll link it down below and uh let's just get back into the video actually just recently there was a bill that was passed by the japanese government that allowed tattoo artists to perform doing tattoos without a medical license and this was such a huge win for the tattoo community because this was something that was going on for years even though that this was only just passed it only proves that there has been like this huge shift in how the newer generations are understanding that tattoos they're not all bad and no they are not all connected to the yakuza what's really interesting is actually in asakusa which is in tokyo there is a parade of people with yakuza tattoos who walk down the road displaying their yakuza tattoos this is a thing that i feel not a lot of people know about and i'm just gonna say it right now so the fact that there's that and just you know that is still a little controversial amongst some people in japan but overall the fact that that even exists only shows where japan is right now japan in many ways with this culture has been very good at always adapting and changing things while at the same time always keeping tradition and so i feel that whole mentality also includes tattoos while there is new generations that are understanding how tattoos are there's still that tradition that is carried on where some people at the end of the day just don't like tattoos so i hope this video was somewhat informative to you guys i understand the stigma that people with tattoos have had to face because i view tattoos as works of art and let me know in the comments of what you guys think i know that i couldn't answer every little question but hopefully this video kind of covered a lot of like base stuff for you guys but i appreciate you guys for watching and subscribe to my channel also go follow everyone that i've shown in this video in the description below and i will see you guys in the next video bye [Music] you

Channel: akidearest

Views: 390,440

Rating: 4.9764652 out of 5

Keywords: anime, otaku, tentacles

Id: 0Lvti4wBEak

Length: 18min 49sec (1129 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 31 2021