The Unmatchable Skills Of Japanese Tattoo Artist

There are a million things we want to express. But sometimes words spelt out aren’t enough. Tattoos sometimes become an anchor. It is not just for fun that people would let a stained needle pierce into their skin and get inked for life. Tattoos most of the times hold a very deep inner meaning expressed in symbols or letters or any other sign. Sometimes we get tattoos to honour the most important or inspirational people in our life. So incontestably the designs we choose to be inked has to be nothing less than extraordinary.

But to have a design like that, we need a talented tattoo artist to understand our needs and craft a tattoo accordingly. There are various styles of tattoo we know about, each of them influenced by a certain culture and area and most of their styles have a rich history.

Japanese Tattoo

Japanese Tattoos-The Brief History

We have observed, among all the different types of tattoos in the world today, Japanese tattoos have been well appreciated by the tattoo lovers. People would often prefer going to a Japanese tattoo artist over any other. And more interestingly Japanese tattoos have been more accepted and popular among the westerners like in the United States and Europe than in Japan itself. The tattoo culture was not much appreciated in Japan. For a long time, wearing tattoos was banned in Japan. Only a few exceptional classes of people were allowed. They belonged to the labor class and other classes in the lower strata of the society. Also, the firefighters were allowed to get inked on their faces and entire body. It was believed that when they due to burns, tattoos were the means to recognize them.  But today, people can easily go for the Japanese tattoo styles because they are unique, and they can impress some religious symbols on your body.

The Tattoo Designs

As much as the designs are fascinating, so is the history of Japanese tattoos. The origin of Japanese tattoo dates back to as early as 300 BC. During the Yayoi period, Japanese tattoo artists introduced the world to their craft. The mystical and powerful designs of Japanese style included intricate patterns, flowers, animals, deities, and figures. They are known to have spiritual effects.

• Mainly there were two types of traditional designs. One of the traditional Japanese styles is Tebori, which requires manually crafting the design on the skin using proper tools. It requires an immense amount of time, patience and eye for details to make a Tebori design. Other than that, there are other factors to be taken care of like the hygiene and the environment. Only an expert Japanese tattoo artist could take that challenge.
• The other one is Irezumi which also requires beating through hands using a wooden tool and needle to mark the skin. In this technique near ink is used, a special kind of black ink made of natural ingredients which is also very expensive.
• One needs to have a strong heart to get an Irezumi tattoo because of the pain he or she has to go through during the process. The tattoo artist making Irezumi is called the horishi. Horiyoshi III is the world famous incredible Japanese tattoo artist, practicing the Irezumi style.
• There are many more that deserve an honorary mention like Shige Iwasaki, Horimitsu, Horinao who have made a name worldwide and popularised this Japanese art in turn.

Tattoo enthusiasts from different corners of the world visit their studio to get inked. No matter if you love tattoos or not, this Japanese art form will always be celebrated for more generations to come.