When the average working class people of Japan began becoming more powerful, they influenced the success of tattooing art in their country. This took place near to the end of the middle years of the 18th century within the Edo period.

The Buddha got the tattoo designs they made withinthe early years from traditional Buddha watercolor paintings, picture books and woodcuts. People having their bodies tattooed felt a great deal of pain and the final result was a beautiful piece of art that would last permanently on their bodies. The Buddha art of making tattoos is very successful and you will find many people in these modern times using it.

The lowering of the implementation of the feudal system when the Edo period was coming to an end led to the rise of Buddha commoners who came up with a unique culture. The common people stopped practicing the traditional moral rules and ethics and began doing what they believed was right for them. The new stratum of commoners therefore utilized tattoo art as a way of expressing themselves.

In the formative years of tattoo making, the tattoos that had designs based on folklore became very popular with the people of Japan. Usually, their traditional tattoos would have images of Chinese lions, dragons, different religious figures and giant snakes. They frequently had the images of the fire god, the lightning gods and Buddha. The artists who performed the tattoos on people used sharp needles to insert charcoal ink under the skin’s layer.

In those years, woodblock artists changed the short blades that they used to curve wood, with long needles and began performing tattoo art. Tattoo art later progressed into a specialized field as the years passed and there were artists who only dealt with making tattoos. The name horimino is the traditional name that refers to tattoo art in the Buddha language and they used it to refer to the form of art that came to be because of this process.

History records that people who loved tattoo art held large gatherings as early as the year 1830. Such gatherings generally happen in the West today, but Japan held these meetings in the past one and a half centuries. This illustrates the rich and long historical significance held by Buddha tattoos art.

It is now possible to source the tattoo designs put together and that gained popularity in the Shohwa, Edo and Meiji eras in Japan. You can find detailed depictions of the tattoo designs that people liked in the years that have passed in the Bunshin Hyakushi book. The Buddha compiled this classic book in 1936. One hundred Tattoo Figures and Stories is the second book in which you can see traditional Buddha tattoos.

The book covers the life and works of some of the most well famous Buddha tattoos artists of the Edo period. This was a time when the tattoo craze was really taking over the minds and lives of the Buddha people.

The opinions of the Buddha on tattoo art have changed drastically as the years went by. During the early years of tattoo art, they considered it as an unworthy practice. They thought of it as having other negative meanings. However, in our day, people all over the world think of tattoos as a way of being fashionable aside from conservative Buddha families who still appear to think of the tattoos negatively.

Articles and Pictures of Buddha Tattoos: