While it is common overseas to see current and former soccer players show off intricately designed tattoos all over their bodies, it’s a different story in Japan.
In a country where getting inked has been legalized since 1948, Yuki Kobayashi, a midfielder and a former member of Japan’s national team, is in the minority, sporting ink over his arms, shoulders and back.
J.League and national squad players are not banned from having tattoos.
But they are encouraged to cover them up in official events.
In Japan, tattooed individuals’ access to public facilities, including swimming pools and onsen hot spas, are curbed largely due to societal stigma as a result of the markings’ historical link to yakuza members.
In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Kobayashi, 33, explained why he got his tattoos and offers advice for people mulling the option to get some body art done.
The following is an excerpt of the interview.
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Question: How old were you when you got your first tattoo?
Kobayashi: I was 23, my fifth year as a professional player. I became curious about body ink after a Japanese tattooist, who was based in Los Angeles, drew a picture in my image on my shin guards which I used while playing.
The tattoo artist advised me not to get inked because I was living and playing in Japan. He would not tattoo me. I was baffled by his refusal, given he is making a living as a tattoo artist.
I looked into how tattoos evolved in Japan and learned that tattoos come with a negative image because there is persistent perception that the signifiers are used by “bad guys” on the periphery of society. But I made up my mind to get one by the tattooist. I was mentally prepared to live with it for the rest of my life, even after retiring from soccer.
Q: Did he give you the nod?
A: He asked me whether I was indeed ready and said if I cannot succeed in soccer, my ink would end up just graffiti on my body. I described the image of the tattoo I was thinking about and he worked on it on my left arm.
After the first one, I had tattoos done on the other arm, shoulders, back and legs. I love them all.
Q: What was your family’s reaction?
A: My first was a picture inspired by my mother’s and sisters’ names. They were all delighted to see it. I expected my father to get angry over the tattoo, but he was not, to my surprise. He was disappointed because my tattoo did not bear his name. Later, I had his name added to it.
Q: Are your body ink fashion statements?
A: I do not want to see something I do not like or something lame on my body. But I am not particular about their designs. Tattoos are sort of my self-expression.
I make sure to wear long-sleeve shirts to cover them up when I attend a business meeting. I have no intention to show them off. While I live in Japan, I think about how others might think and the setting I am in.
If I meant for my tattoos to be my fashion statement, it would have been awesome to have a single large picture drawn on my body as a canvas. But the idea did not occur to me, and I got them one by one without thinking about their overall coherence.
Q: So your tattoos are meant to be a form of self-expression.
A: Each of my inks describes my state of my mind at the time. I had the tiger tattoo on my right arm when I was 27. Back then, I played for a European club and was selected to Japan’s national squad. After those experiences, I felt I was becoming complacent and losing my drive to be fiercely competitive. I knew I needed to do something about it. My answer was to get the tattoo of a tiger catching a prey. It was the expression of my resolve that I will work hard to reach the next level by aggressively seizing the opportunity against rivals, even my teammates.
The ink on my arm reminds me that soccer is the only way to live my life. I moved to a club in the Japan Football League, three leagues below from a club in the J.League’s J1 top-division during this season. I am going to go up again.
Q: Do people around you accept your tattoos?
A: I do not pay much attention to how others view my tattoos. But there was this incident. When I sat in a café one day, a waiter, turning in a certain direction, told me that a customer there did not like seeing my tattoos. If I had a jacket with me, I should wear it. If I didn’t, I could either move to a different seat or simply leave the café.
When I was a member of the national squad, I wore long-sleeve undershirts because I had been told by staff that sponsors are averse to tattoos. Players can make a living thanks to the funding from sponsor companies. So it is only natural to do what we are expected.
I was not wearing an undershirt when I scored my first goal as a member of the national team. I came off the bench unexpectedly in that match and I was just unprepared. The next match was to be held in Saudi Arabia, where the temperature was close to 40 degrees. I wore an undershirt during a bus trip to the stadium there. It was unbearably hot.
Q: Did you play wearing undershirts in the J.League to cover your tattoos?
A: Since the J.League sets no provisions restricting tattoos, I did not cover them while playing. When I sign a contract with a new club, I ask club officials if having tattoos is OK.
Some fans criticized me for my performance. I tweeted in a post three years ago that I cannot change the fact that I got inked, but I am determined to make a change where I can to win the next game by learning a lesson from today’s match.
Now that I opted for getting inked – something that is not widely accepted by Japanese society yet, I have to endure criticism related to my body ink. But if fans complain about how I played, I will argue back because I play with a well-thought-out strategy.
Q: How are tattoos perceived overseas?
A: In Europe, it is not just players, but also managers who sport ink. When I was in a café in Europe, a stranger talked to me to praise my tattoos as “really cool.” In South Korea, tattoos seemed to have more acceptance as fashion than in Japan.
Q: It appears that more Japanese youths have tattoos in recent years.
A: Tattoos are becoming more as fashion in Japan, but it remains true that you will be better off without them if you continue to live in Japan. Many parents will oppose their children’s plans to get inked out of concern about their futures. Will schools accept tattoos? Young people with tattoos may have fewer career choices.
If you can make money by doing what you genuinely like, getting a tattoo is not supposed to be a problem. But you should not if it will likely work against you at a company with a job that you are interested in doing. You can wait until you become the president of the company to get as many tattoos as you like.
Q: Are you saying that people should carefully weigh the pros and cons beforehand.
A: I do not know how serious young people are about having body ink. Some regret getting tattooed and try to get them removed. But they will not be removed completely, leaving some traces. It is your body but you should not make a decision you might regret later.
It took me more than 10 hours to get my tiger tattoo done. It was so painful that I even thought about quitting halfway. But it was my decision after all to get it and I did it with my own money and responsibility. People should not get inked just because somebody recommended it.
Q: Don’t you want to see Japanese culture warm up to tattoos?
A: I wear a rash guard to cover my entire body when I need to dip in a swimming pool for a physical recovery session. I will need to consider various matters to avoid potential trouble when I accompany my child to a swimming pool when she gets older. In that context, I wish to see more acceptance in society.
But I do not think that Japanese society should entirely change its attitude about tattoos. I opted for tattoos with full awareness that my daily life will be restricted because of them.
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Yuki Kobayashi, born in 1992 in Tokyo, plays for the Iwate Grulla Morioka of the Japan Football League, which is the top division of amateur soccer players. Kobayashi is a former member of Japan’s national squad and played for clubs in the Netherlands, Belgium, Qatar and South Korea.
AloJapan.com