In Fatal Frame III, "Fear of Invasion" is one of the themes. The unusual phenomenon of the tattoo, which is invading into the usual way of life, is invading the heroine's skin every time she has nightmares, so the key visual for the game is this tattoo. In fact, the Japanese subtitle of Fatal Frame III is "Call of the Tattoo".

One of the key visual images I had when I started planning Fatal Frame III was of a priestess, standing in the dark, whose skin was covered all over with a snake tattoo. And this same tattoo appears on the heroine's skin and covers all of her body. The tattoo invades her skin as though the snake is sticking with her. The heroine withstands the pain of the tattoo invading her skin, but gradually she let herself into the pain and starts sleeping.

In this title, the tattoo is the key in respect to both the story and visual imagery. First, let me talk about Japanese tattoos. Tattoos -- the small ones -- became a fashion item and became accepted by people. However, the traditional Japanese type of tattoo sometimes covered all of your back or even all of your body. The tattoo has magic meanings such that the drawing gives power to the tattooed person. It is a kind of animism and is mysterious.



The magical and mysterious meanings of the tattoo, the fear that you cannot get rid of the tattoo once you have it in your skin, the erotic image when the tattoo invades the woman's skin… I wanted those concepts in my game and I chose the special tattoo as a key visual image of the game.

In Fatal Frame III, a priestess got the tattoo in an ancient religious ceremony, and then this priestess touches the heroine when Rei is in the House of Sleep. The tattoo then invades the heroine's body and gives her pain every time she dreams. Ultimately, the tattoo invades even her eyes, at which point she cannot get back from the dream and she must linger in the House of Sleep forever.

In the House of Sleep, tattooed ghosts are walking around, and they attack the heroine. Like the heroine, these ghosts lost their loved ones, and ended up in the House of Sleep.