Short Fiction

Tattooing

It was in those days when people had the virtue of stupidity and life was not yet busy as is today. It was in those happy days when life was so unrestrained that the gentle faces of nobles and young lords were not clouded; that the subjects for laughter for ladies-in-waiting and courtesans were abundant; and that the profession of clowns and buffoons who were paid for their talent of talkativeness, could exist. As the favourite heroines of the dramas and stories, such as Woman-Sadakuro, Woman-Jiraiya and Woman-Narukami, showed, all the beautiful were strong and all the ugly were weak in those days. Everybody, man and woman, contrived to look beautiful till pigments of bright colours were punctured into the naked body. Daring lines and gorgeous colours ran riot on the bodies of people of the day.

Visitors to the gay quarter beyond Umamichi (in Edo) tried to pick up such carriers of kago as had beautiful tattoos. The girls of the Yoshiwara and Tatsumi also loved men who were beautifully tattooed. Not only gamblers and firemen, but merchants and sometimes samurai were tattooed.

Exhibitions of tattooing were often held at Ryogoku, at which the participants, slapping their well-tattooed bodies, bragged of their striking patterns or commented on the works of others.

There was then a young tattooer of talent, called Seikichi. He was reputed to be not inferior to such famous tattooers as Charimon, of Asakusa, Yakkohei, of Matsushima Cho, and Konkon Jiro. Dozens of people already had had their bodies stripped before his brush—like so many pieces of canvass. Most of the works which won universal praise at the exhibitions of tattooing came from his brush. Daruma Kin was said to be specially skilled in vignette style; Karakusa Gonta was known as a genius of rouge style; while Seikichi was noted for his striking patterns and gaudy style.

Seikichi, who had once earned his living by the profession of an ukiyo-e painter following the style of Toyokuni and Kunisada, retained something of the conscience and sentiment of an artist even after he had degenerated into being a tattooer. Persons who did not possess such skin and constitution as appealed to his artistic sense could not obtain the favour of his tattooing. Even when one obtained the favour, it was always understood that one must be prepared to accept the patterns and fee exactly as he desired, to say nothing of the pain of his needle which lasted for one month or two.