*Monday Sept 13/10

TATTOOED POST RUNNER — Delivering the mail in Old Japan (2) 入れ墨, originally uploaded by Okinawa Soba.

The art of the Tattoo showed up everywhere in Japan — from the Ainu in the North, to the Okinawans in the South. Above photo from ca.1896.

There is some controversy as to whether the tattoos in these hand coloured photographs are genuine, completely added by the colourist, or a combination. Soba, who posted these on Flickr, presents an interesting case for it being mostly genuine, with s...