Ainu

photo creditThe Ainu people are an indigenous people who have lived in Japan for at least 10,000 years, according to some scholars. They now live predominantly in Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. They practiced tattooing for centuries. But only women wore or applied tattoos. And the tattoos appear like mustaches.

Americans might take special interest in the Ainu people since modern scientific techniques connect genetic material of Native American Indians with the Ainu. This suggests that some Ainu people crossed from Asia to Alaska via the Bering Strait, then continued to move south and eventually became part of the genetic stock of the American Indians.