Tattoos rare sight at Tokyo festival

Sanja Matsuri is a big festival. It's in the Asakusa area of Tokyo. The Shinto festival is about three local, human gods. The men started Asakusa's Senso-ji temple. It's the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo.

The religious festival lasts for three days. People carry 'mikoshi' through the streets. The mikoshi are holy taxis for these gods. They take the mikoshi around Asakusa for good luck.

You can see lots of traditional tattoos at the festival. In Japan, this is unusual. Most people wear clothes over their tattoos.

Tattoos have a complicated history in Japan. People marked criminals with them.

Traditional tattoos are expensive and painful. Members of 'yakuza' criminal gangs covered their bodies in them.

But ordinary workers got tattoos too. They were symbols of identity and good luck.

For over 70 years, tattoos became illegal. Today, people can't show them in spas or gyms.

Many workers lived in Asakusa. Tattoos are part of its local culture. At the festival, people can show them in public, like Masaki Oyama.

Masaki Oyama: "I try not to show them while I'm at work to avoid any trouble for my company. So I make sure they don't show. Even on my days off, I wear long sleeves. It's not like I'm consciously trying to hide anything in particular, but I've been doing it for so long. That's just how it is."

Now, people's ideas are changing. For some young people, tattoos aren't a problem. Some businesses don't make people cover up their tattoos. Weniger anzeigen