CaptCanada

it would be really great if they go back to hitting the pencil and paper. I know that this forum wasn't made to criticize tattooers work so I'll say no more about that. What artist would choose a name of "fix"... that's just asking for trouble.

I'm with everybody else go to Chicago Tattoo Co and if the rates are to high for you(sorry but don't know what you guys over there charge) save your money for a few months, cause it will be cheaper in the long run no matter how much you paying at jimmys and you have a nice tattoo that you could be proud of.

Well like I said Tokyo isn't in harm, but life has changed very fast here in Japan. Like they put a cap of 10 litters of gas at a time, food at stores is mostly sold out from people stockpiling it, rolling black outs, and in Tokyo were asked to conserve electricity, a bunch of other little stuff that is just piling up.

But like I said daily earthquakes are getting annoying. I'm very used to them but not daily, or after a big one like last week. Just have to wait for people to calm down and get back to normal while they contnue to clean up.

Sorry just have to do a little venting, but it does have to do with current events.

I'm tired of all these damn earthquakes, since wensday last week we have been getting them daily all coming from the same location. Luckily it's 230 miles away from Tokyo, but if it's 5.0 (or so) and higher we feel them here. So everytime I have to ask myself well is this gonna be the big one that destroys Tokyo. I know it is not likely that we have experience another big one for awhile. It's just gonna take a few weeks to take the edge off.

Now for the 9.0 that happened on Friday, it totaled the Sendai/Fukushima costal area. The only good that can be said from it is that the population there is low. Other then that it's all bad news, quake, tsunami, power plant, volcano.

I guess I'll stop but I could keep going, all I want is these quakes to stop but they won't.

Well okay, thank you for filling in the gray areas that the Internet wasn't. Normally I don't eat to much suger but I do normally eat a candy bar before starting getting tattooed. So I'll try getting a little bit more suger in my system before starting.

Well I don't know exactly why but how I understand it. White blood cells are seeing your body is under attack, and trys to clean up. Your lymphs fill up with some pigment and chemicals and swells up. So guessing more ink you put in your body the more you get swollen. If you give your body time to process the chemicals it doesn't effect you that much, unless you go though a long session. I'm not sure how correct this is, but it's just what I can gather from reading online.

Well although I still haven't gotten a tattoo on to many locations I'll give my two cents. Yesterday I had just above the back of my knee shaded. Like right where it just starts to bend, it's a pretty good place, but could be just an off day. Didn't sleep to well and wasn't as hydraded as I normally am.

Follow up to this is getting tattooed everyweek; it's hard on your body. My lymph node in my groin swells up and makes my leg very sore for a few days and makes it feel like your starting to get sick for a few hours.

I have to apologize in advance if I take this to off topic.

MsRad I understand what you are saying, but you are starting to talk about something the avg consumer doesn't care about. We, as in collecters, are willing to wait many months and pay top dollar for a chance to add some ink. And while I belive you get what you pay for, I can't belive we all started with this mind set and a list of people we want to get tattoed by. But if you did congrats.

How I belive people that are getting tattooed currently, they just see ink under the skin. Not the artwork behind it. And yes they go to the most convenient places. And what's more convenient than the local hang out (ie: this place). So let's just say a group of friends (6 people all untattooed) start going here for coffee or music. And after a few weeks of walking past these tattoo machines, one of them starts to think about wanting to try it. Says to the group of friends that they wanna get tattooed. Then another one says me too, let's go together. They come back and say it doesn't hurt like they thought it would. One by one they all get tattooed, maybe start collecting tattoos, maybe it will stop at one. But they start really looking at there tattoos, seeing crooked lines, color loss, ect... it puts a bad taste in there mouth about the whole tattoo thing, cause only two choices now, laser or cover up.

Now they start getting names of good artists, but with having a negitive view of tattooing from the prior work and seeing the rates well known artists charge. They stay with just one tattoo, a mistake from the past. Get enough people like this and tattooing will slow down.

Now I do understand that this scenario is a lot of what it's. But it's also human nature, some of my friends back home are speaking of getting tattooed, I'll try talk them out of it at first, then I'll start teaching them what to look out for at a shop or an artist if they continue to want tattoos. None of them have gotten tattooed yet, but they waiting.

I will also say I haven't been state side in 5 years, exept for a 2 vacations. But what I see from the outside looking in is, Americans get some of the most visible tattoos out of everybody. And if you lose your job and need to find new work, with visable tattoo, good luck. If you've planned a head or your job is in this sub culture then it's different, don't have to worry.

Now these are just my thoughts from the top of my head, good tattoos / bad tattoos it doesn't matter if it's on your body and you like them. Cause at the end of the day, it don't matter what I think.

Wow, these are great. I will not talk down upon packrats anymore, now that I know what types of treasure they can collect.

Well to be honest I'm not to hot on the idea, I belive it's all part of the trend for tattoos becoming more mainstream. You can find pictures of tattoos done there on facebook, which the store has been opened for 2 months and has more than 3000 fans. Didn't look at all the work they've done but nothing caught my eye. Most seemed to be avrage with some being below avg. Which will all work out in the end, people won't liked getting tattooed anymore when they realize they've been getting crap tattoos.

So, to sum it up. Soon because of shops like this tattoos will fall out of being mainstream and go back to being how it was, and how it should be.

[edit] I don't mean to sound like everyone getting tattoo a bad thing. Just getting tattooed cause it's the "in" thing. Everyone wanting to get tattooed is great for tattooers. With this rocky econamy it's great. But that is flooding the market with people with little to no skill. But like they say what goes up, must come down.

Also sorry about not posting a facebook link. On my itouch and can't copy/paste.

hot crossed buns?

On the palms, and nuckle tattoo saying yeasters to tie everything together. God that'd be horrible.

All I saying is I want more of them... maybe like a full sleeve, cinnamon roll, cup cake, french bread, mexican pan, dinner roll... ohh well maybe 2012.

Saw two newly-tattooed people over the weekend with variations of the honeycomb pattern, individual of one another. Cause, you know.. bees.

Like literal honeycombs?

My friend got a cinnamon roll and a wooden spoon tattooed... I hope that catches on, you know baked goods.

Found a documentery on youtube, the guy that uploaded it doesn't have the first part so it starts with 2. If you have time, its a good watch. Little bit on the long side but time just flys by.

Yeah, ok so turns out its the mark of cain.... found the first part.

Was living away from home, and before getting it I told her I was planning on getting one. She said all those motherly things she's suppost to say. The next year when I went back home for vacation, first time back after getting it. Maybe the second day I was home she knocks on my door after I take a shower and asks to see it. She looks at it says well that ain't to bad. It's a bmw roundel on my chest, so she didn't mind it cause size and placement. Planning to take her with me so she can see how tebori is done (and show her my legs) when she hopefully comes here later this year. I don't think she has ever walked into a tattoo studio, let alone heard skin snap from needles.

My mom and I have had a pretty open mother/son relationship, growing it was a little different.

Knuckle Tattoos

This site just took up a bunch of my time...

Yeah that is a great site, but way to many bare arms in that site. Anyone catch the Mike Tyson look alike with tribal around his eye yet, its way back there?

Madball has a great live show, only seen them once but had two highlights from that day, one being madball the other is gwar.

Well that is very nice to hear that you still have ink in your palms. I have wondered what I would get on my palms if I ever got to that point (lack of space on the rest of my body). But I have feared that with fading and all that the pain wouldn't be worth it. Very nice to hear other wise.

You beat me to him lochlan, screwing around on google and found that they have him as "tattoo zombie man/boy." Heres a pic that shows some of his work http://www.likecool.com/Gear/Other/Zombie%20Boy/Zombie-Boy.jpg

Okay, well I'm sure you already know this (I don't know from when, few years ago) but horiyoshi III doesn't use the stick anymore only machine. He also won't take any new customers, only finishing old work. I heard his son has started tattooing, but I don't know much about it. So Adams tattoo won't be from horiyoshi III.

When you do come here, and if you have time I would really like to meet you. Please tell me when you will be here.

Kylegray: I give him all the worlds respect, I wasn't refuring to him with that. It's for people traveling to japan with any form of tattoo, or getting a tattoo done while here. Like bryan has said Japanese don't like conflict, most will let everything slide because you are a gaijin. Yakuza included, real yakuza are quiet people unless they need to be heard. Chinpura are the low level loud mouths that will get mad seeing your Japanese tattoo, but they get mad at everything.

Dari: No, I'm not an artist, I lack artistic talent. Just a fan of the artwork. I work as a bartender/manager. Don't know how many street shops they have in Tokyo, but Osaka has more.

No sorry don't get me wrong. All I'm saying is if you don't live here you don't have to bother learning the in's and out's. Just showing up and being respectful to your horishi and get some work done.

Thanks for the warm welcome. I came out here cause at the time I thought I wanted to leave the US, but found out I'm really just a rolling stone, not liking to stay somewhere once it becomes familiar. Picked japan cause it was very different then America while still being a 1st world country.

Bryan Burk, great post but I just have a few questions to ask you. Most of your experience is prior to 2001 right? It just seems like your info, altho great, is a little out dated. Second question I have is you came here for taking pictures and collecting stories about horimono?

Again great post, but I would just like to add (not to you Bryan), unless you living here you don't have to care about what is happening in japan. Take a vacation, fly over here, meet your horishi and get a new tattoo if you want a horimono.

But that's the thing, they ain't hiding like they used to. A lot of them have websites.

If they still tattooed cause of crime, it would be worse. What's stopping you from killing 10 people instead of one just so you know you'll get the death penalty.

Okay, lets see if I can help with this. Had to do alot of research before I started mine.

Edo Period

At the beginning horimono were mostly for trade workers like firemen, that would get koi back pieces that they believed would keep them safe from fires. Or by merchants, cause you see at the time Japan had very strict code of classes. Merchants were believed to be one of the lowest of the low, but were very rich. They couldn't wear expensive clothes or jewelry cause of there class being low, so they would tattoo themselves.

After that criminals started being marked by rings around their arms, or a tattooed forehead. The number of rings meant different crimes, forehead a kanji character for the crime committed. After prison they wanted to cover these tattoo and started irezumi. Now that Ex-cons were getting tattoos no body wanted them or be associated with them. These cons become outcasts in Japan, formed there own groups and started what became the yakuza.

Meiji Period

Things stayed pretty much like that till 1860's when Japan opened its doors to the west. Tattoos were though to be very primitive and barbaric by the Japanese government so they banned them. But they only banned Japanese citizens from getting tattoos, foreigners were still allowed to be tattooed. During this time tattooing in japan went very underground. It stayed banned until the American occupation after WWII.

Now

The current position of tattooing in Japan is this. Traditional tattoos done in the hand poking method is still given a bad name, some osens/ beaches/ ect.... won't allow tattoos western style or Japanese style. But because they were only banned about 60 years ago old generations still believe them to be the mark of the devil, and raised there children that way too. As time passes it will change.

Western style tattoos are starting to become more and more popular here, young japanese girls fallowing a fad are getting them mostly thinking that they are cute. Tebori style tattoos and tattoo artists are still underground for the most part. Most of them like it that way too, if you want horimono you need to find a artist that is willing to do it. Some are more open to the idea of tattooing a foreigner then others.

But it is not like fight club, horishi are still out there, just need to find them.

horimono, irezumi - traditional Japanese tattoo.

tebori - technique of tattooing by hand.

horishi - tattoo artist doing tebori