Criminals of Japan’s Edo Period Were Often Punished by Getting Face Tattoos soranews24.com

Called a “tattoo penalty” (irezumi kei) it was handed down to perpetrators of relatively minor crimes like theft and burglary.
Afterwards the culture moved away from tattoos well until the Edo Period when it came back in a very different way.
No prisons existed in the Edo period until the development of large cities like Osaka and Edo (Tokyo) which lead to an increase in crime.
This continued over the years with the face tattoos changing to the less embarrassing – and quite fashionable by today’s standards – arm tattoo.
In 1872, the newly-established government of Japan abolished the tattoo penalty once and for all.