Usually a bandage will suffice to cover it. Even for very tattooed people, can be quite liberal with it.
> Even for very tattooed people, can be quite liberal with it.
Is this true for all heavily tattooed people, or are they more understanding if you're not Japanese?
In my anecdote, the tattooed person was Asian but non-Japanese. We did this several times, but of course it's still a small sample size, so take this with a pinch of salt.
Yeah, I guess now’s time to do the groundwork for building a tattoo empire in Japan.
No. I'm black, tatooed and found an onsen in Tokyo that accepted me without any issues whatsoever.
I find that in the big cities (Tokyo, Osaka, etc) this isn't an issue anymore but it still is an issue in more rural parts of Japan. We were visiting friends in Akita prefecture recently and found fairly nice baths that did not accept tattooed folks.
Like literally any tattoo? or do you have to be fully blasted to get banned?
depends on the bath, but they're generally understanding of foreigners with tattoos.