Tattoos come out of hiding in Japan...

Hmmm. I wish they had told that to the fitness company in Kyoto. The one that fired my Canadian friend on her second day for having a small tattoo that was visible when she wore her swimsuit.

Even though there is a surge in popularity of this artform in that country, there is still a lot of negative sentiment. I was especially interested in what one of the artists was quoted as saying in the article:

"I foresee a generation of elaborately tattooed homeless in the future," says Hata from Koenji's Inkrat studio, only half jokingly. "It's hard to get bank loans and rental contracts with visible tattoos. Things haven't changed much."

It turns out that things don't change so quickly in the land of the rising sun...