Hayley McLAREN (Hitotsubashi University)
“Living Horimono: Modes of Agency of the Tattoo and Tattooed Body”

The penetration of, and permanent marking on the skin, through the process of tattooing invites a myriad of historically and culturally contextualized interpretations focusing on the physical and symbolic breaking of a boundary, namely between ‘body/self’ and ‘society.’ The skin, in its interpretation as both a border separating and an interface linking body/self and society, is seen as a site for socialization and identity formation. In the Japanese context, horimono, Japanese tattoos, have predominantly been discussed in academic scholarship in terms of signs or symbols, particularly in reference to group (dis)affiliation and identity formation. Consequently, permanently marking the body with horimono is more often than not conflated with an historicised criminal identity and as such represents a visual and physical boundary between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Yet lived experiences expressed by those with horimono, and horishi, Japanese tattooists, indicate horimono penetrate more than just the physical or symbolic boundary of the skin and are beyond the scope of visual interpretations of ‘identity.’

In this paper, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the shitamachi area of Tokyo, I explore how both wearers of horimono and horishi experience their tattoos and the tattooed body. Here, what may on the surface appear to be a mere image on the skin, can be experienced by the wearer as protective, talismanic or other physical manifestation. Employing a theoretical framework of agency to examine these lived experiences, I suggest a locus of agency lies not only in the tattooed body, but also in the horimono itself – independent of the body on which it is inscribed, yet manifest in and acting on the wearer.



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