World rugby stars must cover up their ink at RWC in Japan
A hefty contingent of the superstars on display at the Rugby World Cup are going undercover to avoid offending their Japanese hosts. GALLERY: World Cup’s best ink
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When the Rugby World Cup begins in Japan on Friday night there will be plenty of flashy footwork, silky skills, big hits and tattoos on display - lots of tattoos - and that’s a problem in the conservative host nation.
Tattoos are often associated with organised crime in Japan, and people with tattoos are often banned at some bath houses and swimming pools.
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Former yakuza member turned Christian pastor Tatsuya Shindo told 1 NEWS the tattoos give gang members an identity.
“Getting tattoos for yakuza is just like a baptism for Christians,” Shindo said.
“It is to show a yakuza’s determination to prove that they are not going back to the society where they used to be.”
Samoan rugby players will wear skin suits to cover their traditional tattoos during some training sessions at the World Cup in order not to offend the locals.
Samoa captain Jack Lam said team officials consulted an expert on Japanese culture to make sure tattooed players avoided any cultural issues.
“We had someone coming in and giving us a heads-up about what we could expect in Japan,” Lam said. “There’s a lot of similarities in our cultures but when it comes to the tattoos ... it’s quite normal in our culture.
“But we are respectful and mindful to what the Japanese way is. We will be making sure that what we are showing will be OK.”
Samoa team manager Va’elua Aloi Alesana told the Rugby World Cup website the word tattoo originates from the Samoan word “tatau, which means ‘a must’,” he said.
“So every young boy, when he gets to a certain age, he gets a tattoo as a kind of passport to get into the group and serve the chiefs.” Alesana said the wearing of the skin covering will depend on the training site.
“There are some training venues that have allowed us to show our tattoos and some places where we can’t, and for those places, we’ve been given ‘skins’ to wear to cover our tattoos,” he said.
“The extra skins are only for when we go to the (swimming) pools though, at the training we can wear our normal clothes.”
Defending champion New Zealand also has a number of indigenous Maori or Polynesian players who have traditional tattoos.
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The All Blacks say they have received advice from experts on Japanese protocol to ensure they do not cause offence.
Scrumhalf Aaron Smith, who has arm tattoos, said New Zealand players would take any steps necessary to adapt to local customs.
“We have got an onsen, like a spa, in every hotel and in Kashiwa that spa was a public one and we had to wear skivvies or tights,” Smith said.
“And that’s OK. We are in Japan. You have to embrace their way, their culture. And most people with tattoos were happy to cover up.”