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Art can quite literally get under your skin sometimes. Especially when applied under the pressure of up to 36 specially sharpened needles. Dr D. Vice visited the studio of top Japanese tattoo artist Horitoshi, looked into the eye of the needle, pricked up his ears, and finally got the point. Dr D. Vice: When and how did tattooing in Japan get started? Horitoshi: According to the “Gishi-wajin-den” (an ancient Chinese Wei dynasty account of the early Japanese), the people of the Japanese archipelago already used tattooing some 1200 years ago as a means to identify tribes or for religious reasons. The Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan, used tattoos to prevent evil spirits from entering the human body. Traditional Japanese tattoo, the art that I am practicing today, can be traced back about 300 years to the mid-Edo period. Back then, prisoners were being tattooed according to their crimes for easy identification. After their release, these ex-convicts would seek the services of specialists (irezumi-shi) who would tattoo flowers or other patterns over or around the prison marks in order to conceal their past. Over time more complicated patterns evolved, developing into elaborate full-body designs and finally becoming an art form. However, in the old days the ex-convicts as well as their tattooists were generally regarded as outlaws or yakuza. It is only recently, through exchange with western-style tattoo art, that the traditional Japanese tattoo is being recognized as an art form and is slowly shedding its stigma.
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ddv: Through these western influences getting a tattoo in Japan has become quite fashionable in recent years. Today you can see young kids, even young women, sporting all kinds of tattoos — all part of an ongoing body modification trend . . . | |
h: Yes, but these are mostly western-style tattoos done by machine that can be done within a few hours. That is completely different from what I am doing. Some of my full-body tattoos take up to five years to complete. ddv: What about firefighters? Don’t they have some kind of tattoo tradition too? ddv: What about the actual technique used in traditional Japanese tattoo?
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ddv: Are you passing on your art to others?
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h:My son, Horitoshi II, already operates his own studio. And at present I have about 17 deshi (apprentices). ddv:How do you select your deshi? ddv:Are your deshi living with you?
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ddv: Do many of your students open a studio of their own? | |
h: Not so many. There are only five or six that have done so. And then there is the “Horitoshi family” — one in Taiwan, and one in San Fancisco. Though they haven’t gone through the deshi system, they follow my style and I consider them like kind of younger brothers. ddv: How do your customers find you? ddv: How do customers decide on a certain type of tattoo? ddv: How many customers are visiting you a day, and how much time do you spend with each? ddv: Do a lot of customers quit before the tattoo is complete? ddv: Is it because the customers are losing interest, are running out of money, or cannot stand the pain? ddv: How much does it hurt? ddv: How many needles do you use? ddv: Are there any work-related hazards to your health? ddv: How about your eyes? ddv: Is it difficult to “draw” on a living, three-dimensional canvass? ddv: Artists working in oil can usually change their mind and redo certain parts of their paintings without any penalty in terms of quality. But once ink is etched into skin, there is no return, is there? ddv: What type of ink do you use? ddv: Over the last 300 years, has anything changed at all? ddv: What characterizes the design? ddv: What about the colors? ddv: Do you develop special relationships with your customers, after seeing them several times a week for many years? ddv: Horitoshi sensei, thank you very much for your time. |
The design chosen by Hideto Yoshida depicts a scene from Susanoo no Mikoto, a deity in Japanese mythology. Susanoo no Mikoto is known as the younger brother of the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami. The tattoo shows Susanoo with an eight-headed, eight tailed dragon.
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