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Yesterday I accidently got encountered with Reed’s (2000) paper about Chinese tattoos and from him, I got to know a book called Youyang zazu (酉阳杂俎) documenting interesting, uncommon cultures of ancient China. There is a chapter about tattoos in the book, their purpose and specific designs which makes me wonder if there are specific themes for decorative tattoos back in Tang dynasty. In addition, as some of Japanese culture can be quite similar to Chinese ones, so I want to investigate a little about Japanese tattoo motifs as well. Here are my thoughts on the topic.
According to the documented Chinese history, the main purposes of tattoos is to punish some criminals or to ink slaves (Reel, 2000). However, tattoos are also used to brand soldiers to prevent them from escaping which caused a lot of social turmoil at one point because those who were forced to fight miss their hometown too much to stay put (Reel, 2000). Apart from these forced tattoos, there are decorative ones as well, which people get professionals to use ink to draw on their bodies (Reel, 2000). However, I would like to point out that there was a very well spread story when a famous Song general Yue Fei got tattooed by his mother using needles to let him remember his responsibility for his country and always be loyal. It is ironic that everything that has a sense of patriotism in China is mostly likely to be encouraged. Anyway, a chapter of Youyangzazu was dedicated to tattoos and the author who was from Tang dynasty documented some of the pictures, patterns in a detailed way. Sometimes, Duan Chengshi, the author of Youyangzazu, even show his admiration on those splendid, realistic tattoos (Reel, 2000). In his writing, people back in Tang dynastry tattoo almost everything they like on their bodies, like beautiful scenery with mountains and rivers; traditional yard and pool pavilion (only restricted to rich people back then); greenery like woods, meadow and flowers such as peonies and chrysanthemums; animals like birds, tigers, snakes; deities they believe in who will give them special powers; and poems they like, especially the ones done by Bai Juyi, a famous Chinese poet (Duan, Zhang, and Liu, 2017). There was a man called Ge Qing and he has his whole body tattooed poems done by Bai Juyi and when you point at one area of his body, he was able to tell you the poem tattooed there (Duan, Zhang, and Liu, 2017). Commentator of the book says that tattoos are commonly associated with people who have low social status such as gangsters but tattooing poem means that this street culture is getting more involved with the mainstream culture which shows the high level of social acceptance of tattoos back then (Duan, Zhang, and Liu, 2017).There are some tattoo motifs documented by Huang and Yang (2011) like phoenix, Tang lion, Toad, Dragon fish, carp, Dragon turtle, Chinese unicorn etc that all have good connotations with them. It can be concluded that other than decorative purposes, Chinese tattoos are the evidence of the owners’ best wishes for them and their families.
Although China is not a religious country now, Buddhist tattoo themes are popular which represent the owner’s respect for deities and in turn to forbid himself/herself doing anything that is unrespectful while keeping a calm, pure mentality (Huang and Yang, 2011). Buddhist tattoos are documented as Japanese tattoo motif as well but they are more specific (Hladik, Harte and Johnson, 2008). For example, the Buddha of infinite light and life and the god of afterlife who is called Amida Nyorai; Benten, Sutra of Golden light are all written as instances (Hladik, Harte and Johnson, 2008). Hindu gods and Japanese gods are also beloved, examples are Brahma, a Hindu god and Kannon Bosatsu, the most prevalent figure in Japanese temples who is believed to be protective (Hladik, Harte and Johnson, 2008). Characters from Japanese folk tales are also tattooed, Kintaro, who has super thrength for those who want to be as brave and unstoppable. Mythical ghosts like Kasa-obake are gaining popularity too. Shannya masks which can represent evil are being tattooed all over the world and everyone has their own reasons.
Still I think the concept of Japanese tattoo or Chinese tattoo are really vague because people from all over the world are getting Japanese and Chinese themes and artists from these two countries are tattooing western motifs on people too so we cannot be too obsessed with the terminologies. `
References:
Duan, C.; Zhang, Z. 2017. Youyangzazu. Liu, S. ed. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Store.
Hladik, M.; Harte, J. and Johnson, G. 2008. Tattoo in Japan: Traditional and Modern Styles. Germany: Edition Reus.
Huang, F. and Yang, R. 2011. Chinese Tattoo Art: Traditional and Modern Styles.UK: Edition Reuss
Reed, C. E. 2000. Tattoo in Early China. Journal of the American Oriental Society. 120 (3), pp. 360-376.
