A famous print by Utamaro titled Azamino of Onitsutaya Tattooing Gontaro shows a courtesan tattooing her lover. Another type of tattoo, Kishobosi, was known as a vow tattoo. This was a tattoo for lovers. A man and woman would hold their hands together and get a mole like tattoo on the tip of their thumbs. This pledge of love was not as obvious as the tattooed initials. .
Other working class people had tattoo designs based on folklore. Popular images consisted of dragons, snakes and Chinese snow lions (Shimada 1998: 1). "The artists who carries out the tattooing tended to be ukiyo-e woodblock carvers who simple exchanged their wood carving blades for long sharp needles (Shimada 1998:1)" .
The idea of the full body tattoo developed out of the samurai costumes. A jimbaori, sleeveless coat, was worn by samurai warriors going off to battle. This coat was decorated with heroic designs of tigers and dragons . These popular images represent classic warrior values such as fortitude and courage (Kitamura 2001:4). Samurai wore these coats in battle to enhance their warrior status. Laborers and firemen, in attempt to mimic the samurai copied the designs on the back of the sleeveless coast and turned them into full body tattoos. .
Woodblock prints with images of full body tattoos also influenced the average citizen. One set of prints in particular, bridged the gap between art and tattoo. A set of prints by Kuniyoshi Utagawa called Tsuzoku Suikoden goketsu hyakuhachinin no hitori (The 108 heroes of the popular Suikoden all told) fueled not only the popularity of the warrior figure, but also that of the tattoo itself (Kitamura 2001:13). The prints contain heroic samurai in full body tattoo. These prints were widely distributed and mass-produced in a time where there was no television, radio, Rambo movies, or New York Times. Just as a teenager aspires to be a great basketball player after seeing Michael Jordan play, the young men of Edo aspired to be the tattooed heroes represented in the prints.
