The Tattoer Essay

1026 Words5 Pages
In the short story, “The Tattooer”, Tanizaki Junchiro illustrates the main character with a very unique and effective way. The author first describes the main character; psychologically and philosophically, by using different symbols to demonstrate the change of personalities of the tattooer and the geisha. He focuses on a few major themes and actions to define the characters and to show us the consequences of the actions he takes. The drawing of the tattoo on the beautiful woman and the effect of the scrolls, they will result in the dramatic change in his personality, from one polarity to another. The story’s main character is totally the opposite of the beautiful woman he meets later on. The tattooer, Seikichi is an artist who puts a mask on the body of a person to make him handsome and/or beautiful, and that mask lasts forever, because it’s a tattoo. Seikichi is an aggressive artist. The author shows his determination by citing, “His pleasure lay in the agony men felt as he drove his needles into them, torturing their swollen, blood-red flesh” (page 68). This shows the extreme pleasure of the artist which is capable of inflicting pain upon others. He has two desires, the first one is to torture men who want to be handsome by having his tattoo. His second desire is to “create a master piece on the skin of a beautiful woman” (page 69). That desire is his most desired dream and still believes that it will happen one day, as it turned into passionate love, something that he never felt before. The author gives a lot of importance to Seikichi, and he describes him as one of the most important people in the surroundings; “no one whose skin or whose physique failed to interest him could buy his services” (page 68). In contrast, the young beautiful woman he meets is the complete opposite of him. She is shy, has no aggression and has no importance in the eyes of the

More about The Tattoer Essay

Open Document