Jump to content

Horiyoshi III video by Vice


Recommended Posts

Ha! I watched the whole thing and thought to myself "Man, I wish there was subtitles". I never was one to read instructions thouroughly lol. I figured it out eventually and watched it again. Fascinating stuff. Thanks for posting.

The man's words on tattoo becoming commonplace kinda bummed me out because we can see that happening here in a big way. It seems everyone and their little sister is tattooed nowadays and it has really taken that beautiful dark edge away from it. I know I'm restating the obvious, but this vid brought it to the forefront for me and sometimes I wonder if I should continue getting tattooed. I usually snap out of it though. It is after all a personal journey and the young lady serving my food with a full sleeve of flowers and song lyrics really has nothing to do with me still wanting a crawling black panther or homeward bound ship or whatever. For me, it is less about "Hey people, look at my tattoo" as it is me looking at myself and saying " I love my tattoo".

Pardon the digression. Awesome vid. Thanks again for posting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ha! I watched the whole thing and thought to myself "Man, I wish there was subtitles". I never was one to read instructions thouroughly lol. I figured it out eventually and watched it again. Fascinating stuff. Thanks for posting.

The man's words on tattoo becoming commonplace kinda bummed me out because we can see that happening here in a big way. It seems everyone and their little sister is tattooed nowadays and it has really taken that beautiful dark edge away from it. I know I'm restating the obvious, but this vid brought it to the forefront for me and sometimes I wonder if I should continue getting tattooed. I usually snap out of it though. It is after all a personal journey and the young lady serving my food with a full sleeve of flowers and song lyrics really has nothing to do with me still wanting a crawling black panther or homeward bound ship or whatever. For me, it is less about "Hey people, look at my tattoo" as it is me looking at myself and saying " I love my tattoo".

Pardon the digression. Awesome vid. Thanks again for posting.

I thought that was a really interesting part of his philosophy as well. I'd agree that it's kind of a bummer how tattoos are becoming so demystified, but I also think that that mysticism can never really die as it's a very intrinsic part of tattooing. What I see happening now is more of a divide between the people who "get tatted" and people go "get tattooed." The former category is generally composed of people who like the idea of getting tattooed and do so to embody the counter-cultural status quo/because it's cool/because wiz khalifa has tattoos. I think that the latter category falls more into people who do their research on good tattooing and solid artists, those who follow a path toward the right tattoo. The people who have a certain reverence for the process and go about it almost ritualistically, and I believe that's what Horiyoshi III-sama was talking about. I don't know if that will ever really die...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought that was a really interesting part of his philosophy as well. I'd agree that it's kind of a bummer how tattoos are becoming so demystified, but I also think that that mysticism can never really die as it's a very intrinsic part of tattooing. What I see happening now is more of a divide between the people who "get tatted" and people go "get tattooed." The former category is generally composed of people who like the idea of getting tattooed and do so to embody the counter-cultural status quo/because it's cool/because wiz khalifa has tattoos. I think that the latter category falls more into people who do their research on good tattooing and solid artists, those who follow a path toward the right tattoo. The people who have a certain reverence for the process and go about it almost ritualistically, and I believe that's what Horiyoshi III-sama was talking about. I don't know if that will ever really die...

cltattoo.....I think you really hit the nail squarely on the head there. Thanks for posting that. It actually made me feel better about the whole kettle of fish lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was thinking the same thing. Just to see a tattoo "breathe" as opposed to a still photo gives you a totally different perspective. Wonder if tattoo artists will start using Vine as well as IG. It's the perfect app for it.

Thomas Hooper experimented a bit with video of his tattoos on his blog, but I don't know to what extent he is pursuing that line of documenting his tattoos. I agree that well-done video of tattoos is great to showcase them, but I still think there's something to be said for good photography. Look at Taki's book Bushido and the photos of Horiyoshi III's tattoos in them and how well they show the tattoos and the way they sit in the skin. The photos are really pretty amazing. I think the problem is that we've just gotten far too used to looking at crappy pictures taken by camera phones on tiny little phone screens and while I think it's on the one hand so great to have this massive amount of access to seeing some amazing tattoos that are being on daily around the world, we've also lost a lot. An iPhone just isn't going to give you the richness and texture that a decent camera will, and the nature of the internet, and instagram especially, is that it's very much about immediacy and getting as much information out as quickly as possible which means that amazing backpiece or sleeve or bodysuit (or whatever, even a one point!) that you and your tattooer have been working on for months or years and that you're going to carry for the rest of your life and is going to age and decay with your body becomes this image that somebody is going to stop and look at for a couple of seconds, "like" it it not, then move on to the next tattoo, dog photo, or picture of somebody's pretentious lunch.

I haven't tried Vine, mind you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I saw this a while ago and certainly appreciate a reminder to watch it again. When I first saw this, I was researching getting my first tattoo and it made me think differently about the whole experience. A lot of my friends are tattoo snobs(and I say that in the most complimentary way) so I had a lot of good influences leading up to it.

I thought that was a really interesting part of his philosophy as well. I'd agree that it's kind of a bummer how tattoos are becoming so demystified, but I also think that that mysticism can never really die as it's a very intrinsic part of tattooing. What I see happening now is more of a divide between the people who "get tatted" and people go "get tattooed." The former category is generally composed of people who like the idea of getting tattooed and do so to embody the counter-cultural status quo/because it's cool/because wiz khalifa has tattoos. I think that the latter category falls more into people who do their research on good tattooing and solid artists, those who follow a path toward the right tattoo. The people who have a certain reverence for the process and go about it almost ritualistically, and I believe that's what Horiyoshi III-sama was talking about. I don't know if that will ever really die...

I agree with this whole-heartedly, both with tattoos and most everything I devote my time, energy and money to. Music always comes to mind. I believe, like H3 touched on in the video, that there is an essence and soul in great art. Music that is written with some kind of genuine, intentional thought to it is always evident over, say, Rihanna or Kid Rock's newest radio hit. The same goes for people who build classic cars by welding and fabricating something from nothing vs. someone bolting on shiny wheels and parts to try make their car look the part. And so on.

The average person that likes shiny, easily attainable things will never know the difference. The people that know, really know and I think it's important to have enough respect for any given craft to be one of those people.

I was thinking the same thing. Just to see a tattoo "breathe" as opposed to a still photo gives you a totally different perspective. Wonder if tattoo artists will start using Vine as well as IG. It's the perfect app for it.

Since IG introduced video last week I've already seen some artists start to utilize it to show their work. Especially with larger pieces, it's a great way to really show how the piece looks and not have to make diptychs and triptychs in a single photo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...