One of the most influential traditional tattoo styles is Irezumi—the full-body tattoos we’ve come to associate with members of Yakuza, the world’s oldest gang, founded in the very early 1600s. In the Edo period (1603-1867), Irezumi was an art form that the lower classes weren’t allowed to participate in, however, they continued to despite government bans. So the samurai elites tried a new approach to making tattoos undesirable: Bokkei, a policy of tattooing criminals. In 1872, Japan passed a total ban on any kind of tattooing, which pushed Irezumi into the underground. This is how a once elite art became inextricably tied to the Japanese underworld, although one could argue the underworld and the elite have more in common than not. Below is a gallery of vintage portraits of Yakuza members getting and wearing their traditional Irezumi.
