GINOWAN, Okinawa Pref. -- "She lies with her arms folded, in peace / Where blue are the marks of fidelity"

So goes a Miyako Island folk song mourning a grandmother's death and recalling the "hajichi" on her crossed arms.

Hajichi, mysterious spidery tattoos once commonplace on Okinawan women's arms and hands, have virtually disappeared from sight with the last generation of legally tattooed bearers.