In Tokyo's nail salons, customers are drawing inspiration from personal memories like travels, art exhibitions, music videos, and favorite foods to create designs that reflect their inner selves. Ouka Sakuragi, a nail artist at Virth+Lim salon, notes this trend toward personalized nail art.
On a cold weekday afternoon in late January, two customers sat side by side in a nail salon in Tokyo's trendy Minamiaoyama shopping district. Amid light laughter, they held their hands under lamplight, discussing ideas for designs that would soon come to life.
Ouka Sakuragi, 29, has been a neirisuto—nail artist—at the Virth+Lim salon since 2022. The salon specializes in short nail art that highlights natural length and shape. Drawing inspiration from impressionist painter Claude Monet, Sakuragi excels in soft, pastel-like marble designs. Yet, she emphasizes that many customers infuse their own personality into the process.
"Recently, rather than coming in with fixed design requests, clients will come to me with a memory from their travels, drawing inspiration from an art exhibition, a music video they like or a food they really enjoyed," Sakuragi says. "(They) want to preserve and embody those elements with patterns and colors on their nails."
This trend positions nails as more than mere adornment—a canvas for self-expression. Tokyo's nail artists observe how customers pack their loves and inner worlds onto their fingertips.
