The Past and Present...

I was amazed as to how people are able to withstand the pain of doing a full body tattoo. Even the full body ones are not completed in one sitting, the amount of pain from the needle constantly penetrating you skin just gives me shivers. But the process and the traditions behind this form of tattooing is very interesting. I was amazed by the relationship between Japanese tattooers and their client. "The Japanese tattooer has an extremely long relationship with his clients, thus advice such as "'don't worry about the money, just take care of clients and they will take care of you,'" becomes more than sound life advice," (Kitamura 21). This kind of relationship isn't really established between artist and clients when the tattoo can be done in one sitting. One interesting aspect of Irezumi is that one must "know the history, myths and legends that make up the culture of art" (Kitamura 23), therefore, each art work created has history and deeper meaning. In the beginning, "the first stage of pictorial tattoos was relatively small, and the designs were family crests...even though people had a couple of tattoos on their body, [it was scattered randomly], not unified" (Yamada), but this art has evolved into large works that fits on the body and flows.

It evolved from the family crests to an intricate piece of art on a large surface of the body.


I wonder how one can endure such pain and what does it mean to these people to gain such a large tattoo. Aside from the association with Japanese gangs, yakuza, what else could this tattoo stand for? I personally will not be able to go through this procedure. But the history behind this tattooing technique is very long and unique compared to other tattooing styles. "There are two reasons why the Japanese full body tattoo was developed: the existence of sumie or, monochromatic ink paintings, and the establishment of clothing fashion" (Yamada), thus, connecting past traditions to reinforce present traditions.

As for the Compact Challenge, saving money and still going strong on Lent. I think both the compact challenge and Lent are helping me save money much better than my previous attempts. I haven't had the urge to buy clothes or makeup and for grocery I'm only spending $30 a week. Thank goodness for Asian supermarkets in Sacramento. The prices for vegetables, fruits, and meat at Safeway is super high compared to SF Market in Sac. I haven't bought any Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Boba!

<3 Annie Tan

Blog #9

Works Cited:
Kitamura, Takahiro. "Passing Traditions Over Time and Oceans." 21-28.

Outside source:
Yamada, Mieko. "Japanese Tattooing from the Past to the Present." About.com. 28 February 2010. http://japanese.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&zTi=1&sdn=japanese&cdn=education&tm=50&f=00&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//tattoos.com/mieko.htm

Images:
-http://www.dsfy.com/Images/Kamon/Pic.gif
-http://travel67.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/67irezumi-5-blog.jpg
-http://morningpaper.typepad.com/entertainment/images/2007/12/16/back_tattoo1.jpg