Moeko Heshiki is no ordinary tattoo artist: she is one of the few people keeping the once-banned tradition of hajichi body art alive for the indigenous Ryukyu people of Japan’s Okinawa region.

Tattoo artists in Okinawa now do hajichi ... A Vanishing Custom,” a 1983 research paper. Islands in Ryukyu each had their own designs and customs. Heshiki tries to stick to original techniques ...

Naha (Japan) (AFP) – Moeko Heshiki is no ordinary tattoo artist: she is one of the few people keeping the once-banned tradition of hajichi body art alive for the Indigenous Ryukyu people of ...

Back when Okinawa was the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429-1879), tattooing the back of women's hands was a common practice, with the tattoos admired by men and women alike for their elaborate designs.

Moeko Heshiki is no ordinary tattoo artist: she is one of the few people keeping the once-banned tradition of hajichi body art alive for the indigenous Ryukyu people of Japan’s Okinawa region. The ...

held every five years and the revival of Ryukyu tattoos (Hajichi), which were explicitly prohibited during the Japanese colonial period, as a cultural symbol in contemporary times. In 1972 ...