Yeah, to any future readers, I'm gonna re post what I wrote earlier to give context to what social issue in Japan the pigtail is referring to.
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The pig tail is an allegory for the Burakumin caste Discrimination in Japan. Japan's own version of India's "Untouchables"
Double brownie points in that the Burakumin were often butchers and slaughtered pigs, so having the boy have a pigtail really sells the symbolism and intent. The Burakumin traditionally did jobs that were religiously taboo and accumulated "filth" from corpses and dead animals.
"Is it infectious"
and everyone's reaction to the tail
is in reference to the past custom and social norms where touching a Burakumin was taboo and if done by anyone not of that caste required said individual to purify themselves by ritual.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin
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*additional context edit: The Burakumin issue is a persistent thorn everyone in that country wants dead because it allows the Yakuza to recruit almost infinitely from the few Burakumin populations who are discriminated against because these guys can't get local jobs in those towns and cities, so they go join the Yakuza.
I have a couple of very awesome volunteers who have taken on cleaning the rest of the chapters (10, 11, 12) so what I may be able to do is release all three chapters at once in a binge format I promise all those months ago. I have the rough translation but I'm going to tweak them in the meantime so they're as ready as can be when the chapters are cleaned/redrawn.
More importantly, I wanted to really thank you for putting "important contact info" (to not spoil anything) at the end of chapter 10. Because you never really know when it might be needed, right? I think it was an awesome gesture.