If you are thinking about getting a Japanese tattoo, take a look at the information below to make sure that you get the best one for your tastes. Japanese style tattoos are quite versatile and can incorporate designs that can work for anyone. From dragons to flowers, there are a great number of Japanese images that can comprise a fantastic, meaningful tattoo. And that’s the part of choosing a Japanese tattoo that is the most important: knowing the meanings for each of them. Often one Japanese tattoo can hold three or four meanings even if it is a single image. Sometimes there are multiple images in the tat, giving even more meaning to the overall design. It is vital that you know what each Japanese tattoo design means before you pick one so you can be happy with the tattoo for the rest of your life. Tattoo designs in Japan are greatly influenced by woodblock prints (or ukiyoe) that were found in novels. The heroes portrayed on these woodblock designs were often shown with elaborate tattoos. Sometimes people just want the tattoos that they saw in those images, while others decide to get the entire image tattooed on their bodies. What’s unique about these tattoo designs when compared to other popular tattoos is that you can not only take some meaning from the ukiyoe images themselves, but also from the tattoos within those images.

The first Japanese tattoo designs can be traced back as far as 5,000 years. Figurines recovered from tombs would have marks and lines to indicate social rank as well as to protect them from evil spirits. The tattoos actually rank pretty high in the “ward off evil” category, even outside of Japan. All of these Japanese tattoo meanings are just as prevalent today as they were centuries ago, plus they make people feel like they have a connection to those people. Tattoo artists in Japan were considered to be highly skilled and had to undergo a rigorous apprenticeship where they lived with the master for upwards of 5 years. Part of this apprenticeship was to develop a complete understanding of the meanings of the traditional tattoo designs. This is why all of the most popular tattoo designs that come from Japan have multiple meanings already attached to them. It makes it very easy for people to research those Japanese tattoo meanings so they can be sure they are the right designs for them. For a period of time tattoos were taboo in Japan and became associated with criminals and social outcasts. Towards the end of the 17th century, this stigma began to lift and decorative tattooing began to emerge.