One Thing We Have Noticed Over The Past Few Years,

is the number of people that have tattoos,

 which is not a problem for us, but in some cultures wearing a tattoo is frowned upon, so guess what? in Tokyo, Japan an enterprising company UNUS has produced tattoo stockings,

so girls can wear tattoos at party time but be tattoo free at work,

why tattoo free at work I hear you ask? because if you are a city worker in Osaka and answered yes in a mandatory survey that was handed out you should quit the municipal government, earlier this month, the city asked public workers if they have any tattoos, 


tattoos are not the sign of rebellion that they once were, but they might get you demoted in Japan’s third-largest city, Mayor Toru Hashimoto, a rising political star, launched a full-scale crackdown on tattoos last month, demanding that public employees, including teachers, own up to their ink stains, in a mandatory survey, of more than 32,000 city workers, 113 admitted to having tattoos, ten of 17,000 teachers confessed, according to the results released, 

a copy of the mandatory survey that was handed out, at a press conference Hashimoto was visibly upset, 'as an organisation, everything about [having a tattoo] is absurd, I’m not saying you’re a bad person if you have a tattoo, what I’m saying is, if you think you can do whatever you like without getting fired or without getting demoted, you better think twice',

[Update 5.17.2012]
at a press conference the mayor stated, 'if Lady Gaga or Johnny Depp came to me and asked for a job with the Osaka government, I would turn them down, [Their tattoos] are only acceptable because they are celebrities, I will not tolerate tattoos on public service workers', Hashimoto later added that it was highly unlikely that said celebrity would apply for public service work, I guess as I have a tattoo I will not be getting a public sector job in Osaka either!