For a country that puts so much distaste on tattoos it's quite staggering to see a full back tattoo of a cartoon inspired comic book from the 80's and 90's, but one such twitter user went ahead and did just that.
The homage that can be seen in the picture, on the left, belongs to Japanese Twitter user Sound_mattsun, who started this creation over a year ago. In fact, Sound_mattsun is part of a Japanese rock band named SoundWitch who has spent over 30 hours getting the ink done. He said that as a Manga Otaku and a huge fan of Shonen Jump comics, he wanted to show just how much he loves the classic cartoons by tattooing them on his back.
He also added that having such a memorial, to his favourite comic book, would be the best thing he could do to show his pride and love.
Taking a deeper look at the work of Art we can see some of the most popular manga cartoon characters to come out in the 80s and 90s. Let's list a few of the most famous from the bottom up: There is Goku from the world famous Dragon Ball in his powered up Super Saiyan form and right next to him we have Himura Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin, who looks like he is ready to unleash his katana sword. The Slam Dunk star Hanamichi Sakuragai in center looking really cool and last but no least we have Hell Teacher Nube, a primary school teacher with a possessed 'Demon's Hand'.
The love and detail that has gone into this tattooed back art is fantastic and shows just how much passion Sound_mattsun has for his beloved Shonen Jump comic book but the image that Japan has towards tattoos is still negative. The connection between Japan and tattoos goes back as far as the Edo Dynasty, with the organized crime group Yakuza known for having full back tattoos as a sign of bravery.
Nowadays, the stigma remains and a full back tattoo is still closely associated with that crime syndicate.
Even though loads of young Japanese people are getting tattoos, there is still such a stigma that, last year, the mayor of Osaka issued a ban on all government officials and workers being tattooed, demanding them to remove the ink or quit and find another job.
