Where To Edit Fake Tattoos?

Where did the prejudice against tattoos come from?

• This has always baffled me as I always thought tattoos were beautiful (outside of the occasional poorly designed one, or intentionally offensive ones).  Certainly there are people who get offensive tattoos, but there are also people who wear offensive clothing and say offensive things.  It's always seemed to me like tattoos were judged more harshly than other forms of art and self expression, especially among more conservative groups of people, even if the tattoos are beautiful and uplifting.  What's the deal?  Where did this judgement come from? Thank you!

• Answer:

  In parts of East Asia, there is a prejudice against tattoos for several reasons: 1) Tattoos were often a form of punishment in ancient (pre-Han) China and (Edo) Japan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Punishments, http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/03/14/criminals-of-japans-edo-period-were-often-punished-by-getting-face-tattoos/ 2) In China, slaves and some types of concubines were often tattooed as well. One would obviously not want to participate in a practice associated with such lower-class people. 2) Some superstitious Chinese believe that scars can negatively impact one's fate, Tattoos are seen as a type of scar, and thus getting a tattoo is bad luck. 3) This might be linked to the idea that the human body is sacred in its natural state. To alter the body via tattoo is to desecrate it, an insult to nature, and to your parents (who "gave" you your body, if you abide by Confucian ideas). Tattoos in modern-day Japan are associated with organized crime (yakuza, gumi, whatever); members often get beautiful, large and highly elaborate body art. Again, this association with criminality has led to prejudice against the art form as well. In fact, there is such focus on tattoos as a "criminal" indicator that younger gangsters are forgoing the tattoo, while younger non-criminals are seeking them out, so this might change: http://www.japansubculture.com/in-japan-tattoos-are-not-just-for-yakuza-anymore/ "In May 2012, the mayor of Osaka and founder of the Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), created a huge controversy by ordering all public employees to confess to whether they had tattoos or not. In Japan, where tattoos are seen as a sign of being a yakuza, (member of the Japanese mafia), the tattoo “witch hunt” is in danger of alienating a large number of Japanese citizens and tourists as “tattoos” become more and more fashionable. Ironically, due to a series of laws cracking down on organized crime, the yakuza themselves are ordering their members to remove tattoos or not get them in the first place. One yakuza boss and tattoo artist laments, “All of my customers now are straight people (katagi). No yakuza in his right mind gets a tattoo now. You can’t do business that way. You can’t rise up the underworld ladder.” The article describes quite a bit of formalized discrimination against the tattooed in Japan ...