IREZUMI

Irezumi (刺青) means tattoo in Japanese and has existed since the Edo era. Traditional Japanese tattooing is a form of popular culture that has flourished since the late Edo period(around 300 years ago). However, there is usually a time lag before it is recognized by the public and officially documented, so my personal opinion is that it was probably practiced by some…

TEBORI

Tebori is a traditional Japanese tattoo technique that does not use a machine. The instrument I use is called “Sashibo” and the method is called “Tebori”. The literal translation of Tebori(手彫り) is hand carving. The etymology of the word “Tebori” in tattooing is said to have originated from the similarity of the movement of Tebori to an engraving woodblocks for ukiyo-e prints. Tattooist called…

TEGAKI

The literal translation of the word “tegaki” is “hand-drawn. In tattooing, tegaki refers to the technique of drawing directly on the skin with a marker, instead of using a stencil to trace the design on the skin. In traditional Japanese tattooing, designs and backgrounds are arranged to follow the curves of the body and are designed with Souchinbori in mind, so hand-drawing is necessarily more…