{"id":73025,"date":"2026-08-12T17:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/73025\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T17:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:19:08","slug":"art-or-medicine-japans-cosmetic-tattoo-artists-in-limbo-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/73025\/","title":{"rendered":"Art or medicine? Japan\u2019s cosmetic tattoo artists in limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tattoo artist Remy painstakingly injects tiny dots of pigment into Koki Hatanaka\u2019s bald scalp to mimic hair follicles, performing a grey-zone cosmetic procedure increasingly in the crosshairs of Japanese health authorities. Japan bucks a global trend by viewing permanent make-up as the domain of medical professionals, and has ramped up threats of criminal prosecution against anyone else who practices it \u2014 like the 44-year-old Okinawan. Industry insiders insist that their craft, from make-believe hair to filled-in eyebrows and lip tints, is an artistic pursuit more befitting tattooists and hairstylists.<\/p>\n

But in a country where body art has long symbolized yakuza gangsters, these cosmetic tattooists\u2019 safety and sanitary protocols are not enough to dispel skepticism. \u201cIt\u2019s a complete mystery to me why they keep saying this constitutes a medical practice,\u201d Remy \u2014 his professional name \u2014 told AFP as he used a fine needle to ink 28-year-old Hatanaka.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Scalp<\/p>\n

Scalp tattoo artist Remy performing scalp micropigmentation procedure on client Koki Hatanaka at his studio in Ginowan, Okinawa prefecture. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"This<\/p>\n

This picture shows the tools and equipment used by scalp tattoo artist Remy as he performs a procedure on a client at his studio in Ginowan, Okinawa prefecture. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Scalp<\/p>\n

Scalp tattoo artist Remy performing scalp micropigmentation procedure on client Koki Hatanaka at his studio in Ginowan, Okinawa prefecture. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Scalp<\/p>\n

Scalp tattoo artist Remy posing at his studio in Ginowan, Okinawa prefecture. <\/p>\n

The procedure known as scalp micropigmentation (SMP) is \u201chardly invasive\u201d and \u201cso painless that clients sometimes even fall asleep\u201d, while requiring sophisticated aesthetic talent, Remy argues. And it is an important job: a sudden onslaught of alopecia \u2014 the medical term for hair loss \u2014 once plunged Hatanaka into despair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even want to go outside,\u201d the marine sports instructor, whose style now passes for a buzz cut, told AFP. \u201cIf I hadn\u2019t done this, I wouldn\u2019t have become brave enough to strike up conversations with strangers,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m more confident in myself now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Risky needles <\/p>\n

A landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2020 declared traditional decorative tattooing a non-medical act, welcome news for an industry long run by artists with no clinical training. But the same did not apply to SMP, which has \u201can established history of doctors\u2019 involvement\u201d, a health ministry official told AFP. The use of needles makes it a \u201crisky enough practice that it can hurt human bodies if done without medical expertise\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

The ministry has repeatedly warned, most recently in December, that criminal complaints can be filed against unlicensed practitioners, \u201cessentially signaling arrest\u201d, healthcare law expert Akihiro Saotome told AFP. That notice likely had a \u201csignificant chilling effect\u201d on these businesses, he said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Scalp<\/p>\n

Scalp tattoo artist Remy performing scalp micropigmentation procedure on client Koki Hatanaka at his studio in Ginowan, Okinawa prefecture. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

A scalp tattoo artist conducting a demonstration during a tattoo and permanent make up contest in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

A scalp tattoo artist conducting a demonstration during a tattoo and permanent make up contest in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

A scalp tattoo artist conducting a demonstration during a tattoo and permanent make up contest in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture. <\/p>\n

In reality though, a slew of medically unlicensed cosmetic tattooists continue to operate openly, having even rallied together at a flamboyant convention hosted by Remy\u2019s SMP brand, Scalp Ink, in Okinawa last month. Dozens of beauty specialists, including from South Korea, Vietnam and Sweden, deftly inked the scalps, eyebrows and lips of their models, surrounded by towering banners depicting each participant as oceanic royalty in coral crowns.<\/p>\n

They argued that, if anything, permanent make-up is even less medical in nature than tattooing for artistic purposes, because it does not penetrate the skin as deeply. Otherwise, they said, both follow the same hygiene safeguards, use needles to insert pigment into human skin and are practically indistinguishable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing nothing I should be ashamed of,\u201d Tatsuki Miyahira, an Okinawa tattooist who also performs SMP, told AFP. He has no medical license. If raided, he said, he would \u201cgive them a full tour\u201d of his workplace and explain every safety precaution. He added that if Japan officially declared SMP art, \u201cI think I can hold my head even higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worried customers <\/p>\n

Experts say Japan and South Korea were long among the few countries that penalized permanent make-up by non-medical personnel \u2014 until last year when Seoul passed a landmark law decriminalizing it. \u201cWhy is it only Japan that still can\u2019t do this?\u201d asked hairstylist Michiko Shinmasu, 50, who doubles as an eyebrow tattooist. The lack of legal endorsement \u201cmakes my clients (for eyebrow work) feel as though they\u2019re doing something wrong. They\u2019re like, \u2018this is grey-zone, right?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Some think Japan\u2019s complicated relationships with tattoos \u2014 historically etched on criminals and then favored by mobsters to assert their rebellion \u2014 fuel official distrust of the practice. Even today tattoos are often banned in public places like hot springs, and Japanese are far less inked than their Western counterparts, although this is changing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowadays lots of people get their bodies inked just for fashion\u201d in Japan, SMP business operator Yasuaki Sameshima, 41, told AFP. \u201cBut tattoos of a different kind existed before. I think their negative image is spilling over and shaping the way SMP is perceived today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite repudiating medical control on his profession, SMP guru Remy agrees it risks infections if done poorly, warning against a completely unregulated approach. In fact, he campaigns for the systematic accreditation and training of all tattoo artists \u2014 cosmetic or not \u2014 in an industry he says remains an ungoverned \u201cgrey zone\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery country has some kind of license specifically for doing tattoos, but Japan hasn\u2019t created that,\u201d Remy said. He founded the Japan Tattoo Hygiene Association, with the ultimate goal of making its program mainstream and even mandatory for the opening of tattoo parlors. \u201cI believe that\u2019s the best way to protect clients and to ensure that tattoos are done under proper hygiene management.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tattoo artist Remy painstakingly injects tiny dots of pigment into Koki Hatanaka\u2019s bald scalp to mimic hair follicles,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[46948,8,410,7687,7686,46950,162,46949],"class_list":["post-73025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-okinawa","tag-cosmetic","tag-japan","tag-japans","tag-kuwait-news","tag-kuwait-times","tag-limbo","tag-okinawa","tag-tattoo-artists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}