Talk:Kejourou/@comment-28682749-20171120022902/@comment-29602226-20171120221254

I think you are getting different stuff mixed up... The yakuza cut (or used to cut) a digit of their own fingers in order to be forgiven after commiting a severe mistake or infraction, but as far as I know, Edo period prostitutes never did anything similar...

They gave locks of hair to favored patrons, and sometimes they would present a fingernail  as a pledge; not pulling out the fingernail, or anything bloody, mind you, just cutting it short. Prostitutes would have long nails and paint them in bright colours, so if a prostitute had a short nail, every other client would know her heart belonged to somebody else...

What many prostitutes did was to buy fingernails to other women and present them to different men, so they thought she had made the pledge for every one of them. Or they would use fake nails in order to hide the short nail until it grew again...

I don't think they would be allowed to disfigure their own bodies in any way. Prostitutes were effectively slaves to their bosses, who owned their bodies, so making themselves less attractive in any way would provoke harsh punishment (they could be starved, suffocated, be exposed to the cold, or beaten in a way that didn't leave marks...).