The Japanese populace have a very long history of tattoos and tattooing, or usually called in Japan as, irezumi, with a number of scholars predict the first tattoos appeared in Japan around 10,000 BC, which is at some point in the Jomon and Paleolithic period.
The earliest designs would have been perhaps the cord-marked pattern of tattoos that were put on the faces and body of ancient Japanese belonging to the Jomon period, however many scholars articulate that proof of these tattoos is uncertain. Nevertheless, this kind of a design does indicate the tattooing traditions that were recognized in the world at that timeline.
The Japanese tattoo designs were followed and written by many Chinese guests and visitors of Japan in the subsequent epoch of Japanese civilization, or usually called the Yayoi phase of Japanese history, which is dated at around 300 BC. The basic idea of these tattoos incorporated devout reasons as considered as status symbols.
A paradigm shift took place in the Confucian phase of the Japanese history, or at around 300-600CE, as the tattoos appeared to take on many pessimistic meanings. Tattoos were then being put on the bodies of criminals as punishment, many times comparable to Roman custom of slave tattooing, in which case the slaves were tattooed with derogatory phrases such as "I am a slave and I am on the run".
After centuries of erratic purposes followed for the marking of the tattoos in Japan, including fads used mainly for decorative tattoos that were put on a couple after both of them were united in marriage vows, the Edo period that lasted between the 1600-1868CE witnessed the eventual ascend of the Japanese irezumi that is followed today.
The one thing that impelled the actual ascend and peak of irezumi art form was the expansion of the art called the wodge printing in Japan, and the publication of the very admired graphic Chinese novel, Suikoden, made tattooing very popular, the graphic novel showed rebel men donning many kinds of tattoos and most of them became a hit with the younger generation, the art later on evolved and many modern and new designs were introduced through time.