tattooedj

Yay! Thanks!

I had the pleasure of hanging around while Taki checked the exhibition yesterday and did his press conference.
I don't normally get involved in gallery shows and museums because they usually focus on the paintings tattooers produce which doesn't interest me as much as tattoos but this is and incredible thing for me to be part of. Mostly because of the other tattooers involved.
It's a small-ish exhibit as far as museums go but there's a hell of a lot to see. I'm not going to review it, I'll leave that to others, I just wanted to share a few of the photos I took yesterday. I checked with Taki and he's ok with me posting them here but most of all: Photography is encouraged at this exhibition. If you post the shots to instagram, twitter etc. Please hashtag them #JANMtattooshow
Enjoy.

Everyone's tattoos are so awesome! This thread is killing it.
Here's a pic of mine from yesterday's session.

Well, Since today I am an official member of the Back piece squad :)
We had a (pretty brutal) 5+ hour start of my backpiece, we managed to finish all the lining (except for the big flowers that need to go on my upper legs).
Next session will be for lining the flowers and the rest of the leg part, and to start shading... I can't wait ;-)

The Japan Times has a long-ish article about the history of foreign-Japanese tattooing relations: Loved abroad, hated at home: the art of Japanese tattooing | The Japan Times
It takes the Perseverance show as its jump off point and then looks at how international and Japanese attitudes towards tattoos have often been so different.
There are some quotes from Japanese American National Museum's top - plus Horiyoshi III gets a mention and Don Ed Hardy.
As a side-bar, there are also some interviews with Tokyo residents about their tattoos and a nice piece by Shige: Tokyo: What's the story behind your tattoo? | The Japan Times
Happy reading!

The Japan Times has a long-ish article about the history of foreign-Japanese tattooing relations: Loved abroad, hated at home: the art of Japanese tattooing | The Japan Times
It takes the Perseverance show as its jump off point and then looks at how international and Japanese attitudes towards tattoos have often been so different.
There are some quotes from Japanese American National Museum's top - plus Horiyoshi III gets a mention and Don Ed Hardy.
As a side-bar, there are also some interviews with Tokyo residents about their tattoos and a nice piece by Shige: Tokyo: What's the story behind your tattoo? | The Japan Times
Happy reading!

The Japan Times has a long-ish article about the history of foreign-Japanese tattooing relations: Loved abroad, hated at home: the art of Japanese tattooing | The Japan Times
It takes the Perseverance show as its jump off point and then looks at how international and Japanese attitudes towards tattoos have often been so different.
There are some quotes from Japanese American National Museum's top - plus Horiyoshi III gets a mention and Don Ed Hardy.
As a side-bar, there are also some interviews with Tokyo residents about their tattoos and a nice piece by Shige: Tokyo: What's the story behind your tattoo? | The Japan Times
Happy reading!

The Japan Times has a long-ish article about the history of foreign-Japanese tattooing relations: Loved abroad, hated at home: the art of Japanese tattooing | The Japan Times
It takes the Perseverance show as its jump off point and then looks at how international and Japanese attitudes towards tattoos have often been so different.
There are some quotes from Japanese American National Museum's top - plus Horiyoshi III gets a mention and Don Ed Hardy.
As a side-bar, there are also some interviews with Tokyo residents about their tattoos and a nice piece by Shige: Tokyo: What's the story behind your tattoo? | The Japan Times
Happy reading!

The Japan Times has a long-ish article about the history of foreign-Japanese tattooing relations: Loved abroad, hated at home: the art of Japanese tattooing | The Japan Times
It takes the Perseverance show as its jump off point and then looks at how international and Japanese attitudes towards tattoos have often been so different.
There are some quotes from Japanese American National Museum's top - plus Horiyoshi III gets a mention and Don Ed Hardy.
As a side-bar, there are also some interviews with Tokyo residents about their tattoos and a nice piece by Shige: Tokyo: What's the story behind your tattoo? | The Japan Times
Happy reading!

The Japan Times has a long-ish article about the history of foreign-Japanese tattooing relations: Loved abroad, hated at home: the art of Japanese tattooing | The Japan Times
It takes the Perseverance show as its jump off point and then looks at how international and Japanese attitudes towards tattoos have often been so different.
There are some quotes from Japanese American National Museum's top - plus Horiyoshi III gets a mention and Don Ed Hardy.
As a side-bar, there are also some interviews with Tokyo residents about their tattoos and a nice piece by Shige: Tokyo: What's the story behind your tattoo? | The Japan Times
Happy reading!

@tattooedj
I only read the article, and that's about as much as I know about this specific situation, so you could well be right that it's mainly about the older folks wanting to tackle the use of the beach for partying.
Taking the article at face-value, though, it makes mention of a few rather Japan-centric social issues so perhaps you can understand my comment:- the Yakuza, problems with U.S base personnel and, overall, the social unease around 'scary' tattoos.
If the incoming tattoo regulations are intended to discourage noisy youngsters in general the committment that people whose tattoos are fashion statements won't be affected only seems rather odd. That will excuse the vast majority of young Japanese (and the westerners!). I guess when the regulations around tattoos are finalised it will become apparent.
The lack of a penalty for offenders and the promise of towels on hand to 'cover up' the problem tattoos made me smile. To me, you wouldn't get that in many other countries.
I was once asked to wear a rash guard top and pants in a Tokyo hotel swimming pool to cover up my tattoos. They actually offered ones they had on hand to me (I didn't bother in the end, but I really hope they were new... Almost certainly, I guess).

Not sure I agree with this comment.
The situation sounds more like an excuse to get rid of the noisy young uns by the older retirees living nearby.
Local residents have latched onto the tattoo and noise issue as a way to shut down the bars there.
Not really a "Japanese" situation - it's more generational...

Quarter for size

Another frustrating part is trying to finish work in time for the photo shoots!
I'm SO FUCKING STOKED to have been asked to be part of this.
The exhibition will be amazing but the catalog will be on a different level.
So much of what most modern Western tattooers and customers know about Japanese tattooing is because of Taki (Shodai Horitaka) - He has published invaluable books at affordable prices that we (Japanese tattoo lovers) have all benefitted from. He has also published books about other styles of tattooing that were awesome. If that isn't enough, he was also responsible for most of my favourite interviews in Tattoo Life magazine with some of my favourite American tattooers.
Many of his books form key parts of a tattooer's library. They stand well on their own but also are perfect as jumping-off points to delve deeper into the subjects if you're that way inclined. I think the Perseverance catalog will do the same.

Horiyoshi III's suit is so timeless. It looks as good now as it did back then!

This?

I have wanted tattoos for years but I had this overwhelming fear of getting something and then hating it 10yrs down the road. Two yrs ago I took my 77yr old Nanna on her dream trip to Hawaii. One day I took the afternoon alone and went on an adventure to find the royal birthing stones. All by myself surrounded by earth as red as blood dying my feet and rain clouds over head I found them. I sat down in awe of the whole scene when a small break came in the clouds. As the sunlight hit the stones it highlighted these petroglyph's of turtles etched deep in the stones. I can have what I ( as a non religious person) can call a purely spiritual moment. I cried like I have never cried before. By the end of experience I felt completley refeshed and more at peace than I have ever been at any other time in my life. As soon as I got home I got my first tattoo on my wrist. A turtle for each of us exactly like the ones I saw on the birthing stones, and a flower for the islands now so dear to my heart

yeh, i seem to do a lot of them, magpies, victorian type stuff, cute and quirky, thats the most kind of requested stuff for sure, im guessing its more of a UK thing at the moment? but it just makes the eagles and panthers and girl faces more fun when they do come in though!

im also gonna add tiny ass upside down lettering on the wrist......in white

Day 2 (Part 2):
I have to take 2 trains to get to Osaka (Umeda) station and start making my way through the masses

The masses

The Roof
I walking to the Hankyu line, I'm looking around and not paying to much attention to whats in front of me, I look up and just burst into laughter because of this

Sure it may not seem that funny, but it was the last thing I thought I'd see and with the angle it was on, i though it was gold.


another shot of the station


The train to Kyoto

lots of bridges

The guy in the hat in the background was singing his ass off and it was dope. Sure, other people seemed to be a little put off by it but I thought it was fantastic! And he seemed happy which was the main thing.


I was trying to get photos of all the hillsides and the Autumn leaves on the train ride but it was hard to get decent pics from an express train ;)
I got to Kyoto and grabbed some quick lunch from Mos Burger (I love that place) and stumbled across these guys

So after reading Iwars' San Fran travel blog, I'd made a comment a long the lines of "maybe I'll do the same for my next Japan trip..." I'm pretty sure the response from @Iwar was "you better blog the shit out of it". So, for Iwar & the rest of the LST crew, here is a blog/travel log of my last trip to Japan, in December 2011 to complete my sleeve by Horinao at The Cat Claw Tattoo-Z in Kyoto. And to catch up with my Japanese fam ;)
(This is my first blog type thing ever so my apologies ahead of time if I waffle on or if it's boring as shit lol. You have been warned :) )
For those of you who just tuned in, I'll do a really quick (ok, not so quick) update to get y'all up to speed on where we are at :cool:
In June last year (2011) I'd gone to Japan to visit and stay with friends in Osaka, and to do a few more things I wasn't able to do on my first trip the previous year (October 2010). Probably the number 1 item on my list was to get a tattoo while I was in Japan (I really love Japanese tattoos, so why wouldn't I want to get one in Japan?). I knew what shop I wanted to go to and who I wanted to get something from, so before I'd left I'd sent off a couple of emails to Catclaw trying to figure out if I could get a booking and when. Unfortunately, I never received a reply... but that wasn't going to deter me ;) Yosuke (My japanese friend who I knew from Australia and who was helping as my translator and local ye olde inn keeper) and myself set out to find the Catclaw and see what we could make happen...
When we've walked in to the shop, Horinao was at his station painting and Hiro was working diligently on, funnily enough, another Australian. Speaking to Rina (pronounced 'Lina') the shop manager and Horinao via Yosuke (and my bad Japanese lol) we decided on a Hannya. Horinao asked what colour I wanted, and my reply was "Aka" (red) making a real emphasis with my body language to say "I wanted this baby really really red" (For those playing at home different colours represent different stages of transformation and different standings in society) Horinao got this cheeky little smile, nodded and knew exactly what I meant. And from pretty much from that point we where total BFF's... lmao. Rina said to come back in an hour and we could start, so Yosuke and I went and grabbed some food and headed back when it was time.
2 1/2 hours (maybe 3 including a break) I walked out with this:


I was pretty damn happy to say the least, and at that point knew that I wanted him to finish the sleeve... IF it could be finished due to needing a cover up that wasn't going to be that easy. Well, there was that and the fact that I'd need to somehow figure out how to get back to japan for this to happen ;)
I get back home and about 4 days later, without going into to much detail, I get some bad news from my Mum but with this news also comes some money and I can only think of one thing I really want to spend it on. I even jokingly said to Mum "You know what this is going on don't you?" and in typical Mumsie style, she responds with "Yeah, I kind of thought that. Just let me know when you book your flights" and that was that...
The next piece of luck was that Jetstar where having another sale to Japan! It's the only way I've been able to go as often as I have - I've never paid anymore than $450 return ;) thank you Jetstar. So I emailed the guys and asked if Horinao thought the tattoo I wanted covered could be... This is what I wanted covered:

Yes, it's Venom from Marvel Comics' Spiderman series. I'd gotten it when I was 19 I think if memory serves correct? It had a lot of black in it, as well as a nice assortment of colours, so I wasn't sure what could be done. Laser was an option of course, but I figured i may as well just spend that money on the tattoo.
Horinao said it'd be all good and asked what I wanted. Although I'd never wanted a Dragon or a Koi as such, I also knew they where probably my only two options. Horinao agreed, and said that a Koi would work best and so thats what we agreed upon. I booked my flights for the end of August, booked 2 days in and after that trip I was left with this:
August 2011 Day 1 (A little over 6 hours not including breaks):


August 2011 Day 2 (4 hours not including breaks - Horinao had a gig that night lol)



He drew everything directly on to my skin to make sure it all worked and flowed as well as possible. I have to admit I was in awe just watching him sketch onto my arm. I couldn't make out shit, but knew I was in safe hands ;) He also never shaved my arm (except for the first time with the Hannya) which I found on later isn't super necessary unless your quite hairy, and it helps lesson the itching during healing :) (hairs aren't growing back)
I got back, twiddled my thumbs until Jetstar had another sale and the second they did, I booked my tickets back for December...
Well, that pretty much brings everyone up to speed with where I was at before I left in December last year. I'll make this the first post, and do the next few as individual days me thinks? So if possible just hold off on any replies until I say "FIN" lol :D (don't worry, they're coming right now!)

You see I think it goes in cycles..i remembered when i first got tattooed the tattooer told me kings and queens and royalty getting tattooed....(little did I know HE was tattoo royalty)and then convicts...unfashionable.....and then it became fashionable ...again....this recent..last decade maybe just a little longer is the "in fashion" times...not diffrent than elephant bells.....or hip huggers...baggy verse tight...crimefighter underwear versus boxers...well thats pushing it there....
But if you look at the recently released Ben corday and amund dietzel books...those designs were the artistic forefather of ones that later became cruder...after someone did a rubbing...then copied it...to someone else not as articulate... that arm became less graceful...or a certain line was left out Ii will try and give you an example tonite(hopefully)there is a hula girl that Corday drew that you see in so many other peoples flash..some drew it very well..others missed the mark....and you can see it mutate...
In fact the center of roses...changed...and i think it was a mistake...you see ones with the classic s and y shape...well the s in the center...I see guys do them now with the 3 petals..which was a posiitive mutation..they look good..but it came from a missing line in the stencil....
I think with the explosion of artists now it is really hard to tell where people learned from...the access to all the reference that was so protected...now its easy to see what a good dragon looks like etc.....so with popularity comes what...mud...in a sense...
I digress....I think the genre that was born in the last 20 years of tattoo painting is amazing.....It still does not have a name..like impressionism or surrealism...Where a hundred years ago ..tattooers paInted to have designs...now they paint to paint...
In fact there was a period where(at least in my experience) a young tattooer was not allowed to paint flash...if you did the guys that brought you in that painted all the flash in their shop would ask"why are you doing that..." painting? " ...you gonna open your own shop?"...use our flash....or you wanna know how to mix colors...why??? you gonna open your own shop??? use our colors...etc....
but of course that is all diffrent now...and no i am not bitching about the state of things...because to tell ya the truth..I stay busy..so what do i care about 20,000,000 tattooers now...as long as i have work......it really does not effect me...EXCEPT NOW ITS HARDER TO GET OLD MACHINES AND FLASH BECAUSE EVERYONE IS COLLECTING...that is my only gripe now i guess....
I DIGRESS AGAIN...what i was saying was at ome point in the mid 20th century not as many tattooers had the talent artisically as at the turn of the century.....
That is why some of them shined so brightly....again it comes in circles..or little circles..no I mean cycles...

jesus christ my back killed. i tried to brave it with a first sitting of 3.5 hrs for the outline and gradually those sessions tailed off to paltry 45min ones. if i had been my own customer id slapped me honestly haha. i didnt really plan anything artistically, i asked the tattooer for a design id had in mind for a few years and after seeing a few sketches the final design came thru, i feel like he wanted to show me the drawing thought process to let me trust him but i already did so for me, they werent so important, i just wanted to get it started!
the only respite was the shoulder blades and even then they hurt, the worst for me was the butt and lower back towards the side, ugh. i have to admit i was embarrassed at how crap i sat sometimes and have been very sympathetic with customers of mine whose backs im working on since.
my backpiece almost felt like the beginning of being an adult and getting serious about my job and getting serious about the tattoos i got. i think i'd been at Frith st for less than a year when Alex started it and it felt like an important step for me, it def marked a special time for me in life and work.
so yeh, it's gonna hurt like a bitch so take painkillers, have a decent breakfast and take the rest of the day off, youll be useless afterwards haha

A little late reply, but i just found some more bodysuit information on Horimatsu's website

Aw what the hell. I wasn't going to post this because, most of what I see here is just so epic. This isn't particularly epic but, I like it just the same. This was my first real 'impulse' tattoo. I was hell bent on getting some kind of little banger as a souvenir of an awesome trip to Vancouver. I wanted to get something done at Gastown but they were fully booked so I walked around til I found a place that had time for a walk in. Normally I would be a lot more fussy but, I wanted it right then and there. I had always wanted a sparrow/swallow, and I liked the date so I threw that in too. Vancouver is the place of my birth and although I haven't lived there since infancy, it always feels very strongly like home when I'm there. So, yeah..... :) Oh, and, pardon the nipple LOL