Japanese word [[irezumi]] means "insertion of ink" and can mean tattoos using tebori, the traditional Japanese hand method, a Western-style machine, or any method of tattooing using insertion of ink. Another word used for traditional Japanese tattoo designs is [[horimono]]. Japanese may use the Western word tattoo as a loan word meaning any non-Japanese styles of tattooing.

British anthropologist Ling Roth in 1900 described four methods of