Special meaning of 洋彫り vs (入れ墨 and タトゥー)?


洋彫り、 入れ墨、 タトゥー are 3 different ways to say "tattoo" with different nuance. I
understand the specialness of 入れ墨 to Japanese history and culture.

Because of the katakana, of course "タトゥー" means the kind of tattoo that is the
fad happening in the USA these days.

But, what about "洋彫り"? The first character "洋" means "Western". As a Japanese
person, when you hear "洋彫り" what does that mean (feel)? Exact same as "タトゥー"?




洋彫り doesn't have the meaning of "tattoo" in itself, so it may be confusing if
said out of nowhere. Its meaning is self-evident if there is a context,
though. The loanword タトゥー has become well-known in the last few decades, and
now it's the primary word to refer to western-style tattoos.

洋彫り/和彫り sounds like jargon, and I think laypeople don't usually use them to
distinguish the styles of tattoo. We would see the words 和彫り/洋彫り when we read
an article about the history of tattoo on Wikipedia, for example.




[This page](http://nisseitattoo.com/commentary/tattoo_difference/) attempts to
describe the stylistic difference between 和彫り and 洋彫り, where the latter is
first used as a gloss for タトゥー. The page also describes some of the senses
specific to 入れ墨. The 彫り in 和彫り and 洋彫り usually means "carving", but it also
has a sense of "tattoo" in this particular context. I note too that Weblio's
E↔J dictionary includes 彫り物 in [its definition for
"tattoo"](https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/tattoo).

Regarding the specific nuances perceived by native Japanese speakers, I'll
have to leave that to others.

