[imagesource: Instagram / Yukinko]

Zentai comes from the word Zenshin Taitsu, which refers to a skin-tight bodysuit that covers the entire body, including the head.

Whether art-related or for fetish’s sake, a community in Japan has been keeping the age-old fascination alive and well in Tokyo.

Tokyo Zentai Style has been going strong since launching in 1997 and Yukinko (her zentai name), one of the 25 members, has been a diligent partaker for almost a decade now.

The 27-year-old is a bank employee in the week, and an explorer of total freedom in her masked, patterned suit on weekends.

Yukinko told VICE that when she first tried zentai in university (circa 2015), “it was a whole new world, with a sensation I had never experienced, and I got hooked straight away”.

 

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A post shared by Yukinko ゆきんこ (@yukinko_tzc)

In the 90s, these polyester suits were more of a fetish for men, but ever since, the suit has risen out of the underground and into the performance art spotlight.

Now, people of all kinds, women most definitely included, use zentai as a tool to feel completely free, uninhibited by social constraints, norms, and pressures:

“I can be myself when wearing a zentai suit,” Yukinko said. “The real me is playful and likes playing pranks, but I was brought up in an old-fashioned family [and was expected to have] a steady job.”

 

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A post shared by Yukinko ゆきんこ (@yukinko_tzc)

…“I’ve always liked getting into a character. So, when I first saw and tried the zentai, I thought I finally found a place where I could be myself,” she said. “Because when wearing a zentai suit, it feels like I’m taking off the armor of the person I should be and letting myself be the real me with complete anonymity.”

Not only is zentai transformative, she reckons, but it also allows one to transcend mental health issues:

“Nowadays, young people, especially girls, are particularly conscious of their appearances and often suffer low self-esteem from comparing themselves to others on social media, like Instagram. That may lead to social anxiety or depression. I know the zentai first unfolded as a kind of fetishism, but I feel like there are actually many zentai users who wear the suit for psychological relief,” she said.

She is hoping to make zentai known as a tool to help people with psychological and mental health needs.

 

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A post shared by Yukinko ゆきんこ (@yukinko_tzc)

If zentai was adapted in South Africa, it would probably be more orientated around challenging the stereotypes of women as sex objects.

Raise your hand if you’re keen to start a SA zentai community.

[source:vice]