Originally Posted by
jpatokal
Just how seriously are these tattoo prohibitions enforced anyway, esp. for Gaijin Smashing foreigners? I can't really see most Japanese onsens dragging paid-up customers out of the bath because you've got a rose on your ankle or something... but how would, say, a young blonde gaijin lady with wings on her back fare? (And no, that's not me.)
I have occasionally seen/heard it applied when a customer was at the counter with a tattoo visible upon registering, but since I am not "decorated", I dealt with my business and went onwards to the baths and didn't see how it fare from there.
An American woman I knew in Japan (no, not *that* way, I knew her husband and kid too) had a small Disney cartoon character on her ankle, and she was occasionally complaining about being ejected from onsen on that account. I do not know if she was going out on a hyperbole when saying "ejected", though.
Also, I have never noticed any tattooed customer - gaijin or otherwise - in any onsen that I've visited and where it was signposted that tattoos were taboo.
That said, there are plenty of good onsen where tattoos are not taboo, and where some Japanese sport true pieces of traditional artwork (and are, generally, eager to talk about them too if you're polite and genuinely curious).