Japanese men have been marked by tattoo artists for the past 300 years. Todays urbane Japanese youth continue the tradition, proudly creating and wearing this ever changing art form. Over 530 breathtaking color photos display a vast range of Japanese tattoos, from traditional full-body forms repleat with classical images steeped in symbolism, including Horimono, to modern One-Point style, heavily influenced by the cultures of the West.\nThe fascinating text provides a glimpse of Japans youth culture and recounts, through personal interviews, stories of Japanese masters of the tattoo art, including Senseis Horihide, Horiyoshi III, Horitoshi I, Horiyasu, and Horikoi. Readers will see some of the most intricate tattoo art in the world, while traveling through time from the 19th century Edo Floating World to the busy streets of modern Tokyo.

Thinking of getting a Japanese-style tattoo? Want to avoid a permanent mistake? Japanese Tattoos is an insider's look at the world of Japanese irezumi (tattoos). Japanese Tattoos explains the imagery featured in Japanese tattoos so that readers can avoid getting ink they don't understand or, worse, that they'll regret. This photo-heavy book will also trace the history of Japanese tattooing, putting the iconography and kanji symbols in their proper context so readers will be better informed as to what they mean and have a deeper understanding of irezumi. Tattoos featured will range from traditional tebori (hand-poked) and kanji tattoos to anime-inspired and modern works--as well as everything in between. For the first time, Japanese tattooing will be put together in a visually attractive, informative, and authoritative way. Along with the 350+ photos of tattoos, Japanese Tattoos will also feature interviews with Japanese tattoo artists on a variety of topics. What's more, there will be interviews with clients, who are typically overlooked in similar books, allowing them to discuss what their Japanese tattoos mean to them. Those who read this informative tattoo guide will be more knowledgeable about Japanese tattoos should they want to get inked or if they are simply interested in Japanese art and culture.

This text offers a treatment of the history, symbolism, and social function of tattooing in Japan, from its earliest beginnings to the present day.

Picking up where Bushido: Legacies of the Japanese Tattoo left off, join Horiyuki as she studies the art of Japanese tattooing with Master Horiyoshi III. Jill "Horiyuki" Mandelbaum takes you on a very candid firsthand account of her exploratiion. Follow her through text and over 270 color photographs into the studios and home of Horiyoshi as well as the shrines and temples of Japan. Offering a bold, new, and very Western perspective to studying the Japanese tattoo, this book is a must have for anyone interested in tattoo arts and cross-cultural study. With a foreword by Takahiro "Horitaka" Kitamura, this book also features never before published photos of tattoos by Horiyoshi III.

This richly illustrated book reveals the meaning and the secrets behind the most significant motifs from traditional Japanese tattooing--such as mythological and supernatural creatures, animals, Buddhist deities, flowers and historical characters--and turns this art form into a path toward personal knowledge and individual expression.

More and more people are getting tattoos these days. Whether these are complex traditional symbols or uniquely significant words, tattoos are an expression of the wearer's feelings and desires. As the tattoo profession grows, tattoo artists are perfecting their art, and attracting the attention of an increasing amount of dedicated enthusiasts. In this rising trend, Asian tattoo art, especially that of China and Japan, has gained admirers around the world. Through interviews with artists and the presentation of their work, Oriental Tattoo Art puts the charm of contemporary oriental tattoo art on full display. In addition, Oriental Tattoo Art contains an appendix with nearly 150 traditional oriental symbols and written characters with clear explanations of their unique cultural meanings for the appreciation and use of the reader. Let us pierce the veil of this ancient and alluring profession and learn about the spiritual and artistic worlds of contemporary tattoo artists in China and Japan.

The history of Japanese body suit tattooing is a fascinating one that encompasses much more that just the application of inks to skin. An understanding of the subject requires knowledge of the social and political forces at work from prehistoric times to the present day. This book traces the development of those forces, their role in the growth of the military government and its efforts to control a people often less than willing to be controlled. With reference to the Edo period (1600-1867), urbanisation and the growth of Edo (modern Tokyo), the background to tattooing is carefully explained. The yakuza (Japanese mafia), their forebears and their attitudes to life, crime and tattooing are explored in great depth. The technical aspects of tattooing are similarly detailed and Horikazu, a modern practitioner of this traditional craft, is profiled. The authors visited Japan at the invitation of one of Tokyo's yakuza gangs, where they also interviewed other tattoo artists and conducted research, and they have produced a book that will doubtless serve its field as an outstanding reference resource for a generation. Tattooing is again fashionable. The authors hope this book contributes to calls for some tattoo practices to be elevated to the realm of art, of which the Japanese body suit must be the supreme example. The authors visited Japan to complete their research by interviewing the bosses of two Asakusa gangs, the tattooist Horikazu as well as other tattoo artists and tattoo specialists. They accessed documents hitherto unpublished in a European Language and returned with much exclusive illustrative material. Book jacket.

Reproduces ukiyo-e prints from the incomparable collection of Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Many tattoo connoisseurs consider the Japanese tradition to be the finest in the world for its detail, complexity, and compositional skill. Its style and subject matter are drawn from the visual treasure trove of Japanese popular culture, in particular the colour woodblock prints of the early nineteenth century known as ukiyo-e. This book tells the fascinating story of how ukiyo-e first inspired tattoo artists as the pictorial tradition of tattooing in Japan was just beginning. It explores the Japanese tattoo's evolving meanings, from symbol of devotion to punishment and even to crime, and reveals the tales behind specific motifs. With lush, colourful images of flowers blooming on the arm of a thief, sea monsters coiling across the back of a hero, and legendary warriors battling on the chests of actors, the tattoos in these Japanese prints can offer the same vivid inspiration today as they did two hundred years ago.

This Japanese tattoo art will be a wonderful inspiration as you create your own designs in this body art sketchbook. Each sketchable page is backed by a darkened page to lessen the chance of bleed through.

In 1970, as a young photographer, Martha Cooper moved from the USA to Tokyo and became fascinated with Irezumi, the art of Japanese tattooing. Searching for an artist, she found Horibun I, a respected master working in the traditional Okachimachi District of Tokyo. Forbidden in Japan for nearly 80 years, Irezumi in 1970 was an art form strictly for those in the know. For some months Horibun I allowed Cooper to follow and photograph him working. The photos, untouched for 40 years, have finally found their way into a book that tells both the story of Irezumi in 1970, and of Martha Cooper's first adventure into a subculture--Publisher's description.