Onsen with tattoos: where you can actually bathe in Japan

Japan's tattoo taboo has softened, but it is still uneven. This is our first-hand guide to bathing comfortably if you have ink.

Three ways to bathe with a tattoo

• Private / in-room baths (kashikiri): the surest route. You bathe alone, so no policy applies.
• Tattoo-friendly public baths: a small but growing list that welcome tattoos openly.
• Cover-up patches: many baths allow a small tattoo if covered with a sticker patch.

What we verify

For every facility on Find Best stay in Japan we confirm the current policy directly and note the date. Policies change, so we always tell you to reconfirm at the time of booking.