70+ Colorful Japanese Geisha Tattoos – Meanings and Designs (2019)

The history of the Geisha tattoo has everything to do with a woman figure known as a Geisha in the Japanese culture. Understanding who a Geisha is and the rich history of these women will help explain why these tattoos are so popular.

A geisha is a young lady that has been educated to provide entertainment to men. Some people may confuse them with prostitutes but those who understand their roles know that their roles are entirely different from those of prostitutes.

Contents:

Source

History

Geisha’s were professionally trained women, and their roles were to play music instruments, dance or sing to their male clients. They also had a wealth of knowledge on Japanese history and culture, and so this provided them with something interesting to talk about with their customers.

Source

Source

These women had the ability to create a relaxed environment for men while providing them with a constant source of entertainment. What made people start having Geisha tattoos is the idea that these women represent the ideal woman.

Geisha are thought to be perfect in every aspect of life since they are sensual, beautiful, well dressed and even well mannered.

Meaning

The Geisha tattoo is the epitome feminine allure and femininity. It is also thought to represent mystique and power, and so many women will get these tattoos to represent this. A geisha was believed to be a perfect woman in all sense and their ability to keep men entertained at all times kept men coming back.

This allure is what makes many women admire them and so for those who do not have it in them the tattoos was a way to show how much they admire them. The tattoo can also be used to symbolize power since the geisha had so much power over men.

Source

Source

The tattoo can also be used to mean something beautiful that is out of reach. The geisha were gorgeous women and in most cases they only provided different types of entertainment. Their male clients never got to touch them or have any sexual encounters with them.

The unavailability of the geisha lady for anything more than entertainment can also be used in the tattoo to mean other things like a dream or an aspiration.

The geisha tattoos can be used to mean elegance and beauty. Everything that a woman needed to become a geisha could be taught by others in the business or by women who specialized in teaching girls how to become geisha. However, one still had to be exquisite, and there were no two ways about this.

Due to this the geisha’s were known to be very beautiful women, and so many people use their tattoos to symbolize beauty. Elegance was also part of being a geisha, and one couldn’t succeed in the business without it and so you can use a geisha tattoo to show your elegance.

Placement

• Whole body:

The geisha is among the few tattoos that can be drawn on the entire body without having to combine it with other tattoos. However, the whole body does not necessarily mean that this tattoo will have to cover every inch of your body.

The tattoo can be placed on the front part of your body stretching from the chest down to your feet or on the back from the shoulders going downwards.

Source

Source

• Ribs:

Whether you want to have a complete geisha image or you only want to have the head the ribs is a cool place to have your tattoo. To make your tattoo look the very appealing, you should have it drawn on the side of the rib just below your arm.

• Back:

This tattoo looks amazing when drawn as a big tattoo, and any seasoned tattoo artist will tell you that big tattoos look exquisite when drawn on the back. The back has more than enough space, and so you can draw the tattoo in any design you wish.

Source

Source

• Half-sleeve:

A geisha is a perfect half-sleeve tattoo. Although a complete geisha image will still look beautiful as a half sleeve tattoo a geisha head tattoo surrounded by exquisite patterns is the best idea for this placement area.

Source

• Legs:

The legs might be one of the most painful places to have a tattoo, but the end product is worth the pain. You can have two matching geisha tattoos on the back of your legs or have a single tattoo on one leg.

Types of Geisha tattoos

• Color-Splashed Geisha:

This is a very colorful tattoo as it uses a combination of different color. Colors can create a perfect tattoo but it is very important to choose carefully the colors to be used on your tattoo as some colors only look well when combined with specific ones.

• Geisha and Koi:

This tattoo is pure Japanese themed since it combines two important things in the Japanese culture. The Koi fish is one of the most important if not the most important animals in the Japanese culture and it is associated with many meanings, for example, good luck.

This fish is usually combined with a geisha image to give your tattoo more meaning.

• Dancing Geisha:

Geisha’s are known for their good dancing skills, and so this tattoo tries to bring this out. Although a tattoo is a static image, it can be drawn in a way that will emulate a dancing posture and so it will be easy to understand the message in the image just by looking at it.

This tattoo is sometimes also combined with butterflies.

• The Zombified Geisha:

This is a new school tattoo that portrays the geisha in another form contrary to the traditional image of the geisha. This tattoo has all the characteristic of a geisha but except for its body that has been altered to look like a zombie.

• Black and Gray Geisha:

The black and gray geisha give this tattoo a unique and appearance by taking away all the colors. A geisha usually has colorful clothes and ornaments but in this tattoo all this is taken away as black and gray are the only colors visible in the tattoo.

• Geisha head tattoos:

There are two types of this the geisha head tattoo. The first one is of a beautiful standard looking geisha while the second one is of a beheaded geisha. The second tattoo is mostly associated with violence, and so you should understand what it means before having it inked on you.