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07/24/2007
Horiyoshi III's 36 Ghosts

Japanese tattoo master, Horiyoshi III, has recently published his latest art book entitled 36 Ghosts, a collection of his drawings based on Japanese mythology and folklore. While the book was released in Japan last month, it should be arriving in North America shortly, and so I've been keeping an eye out for it.

Sophia Books, Vancouver's international booksellers who have been importing tattoo related books from Japan for years, are taking pre-orders for 36 Ghosts at the price of about $250 CAN. I've also been watching The Japan Tattoo Institute's Keibunsha.com to see when I can order it from them. They're a vast resource for new and old books on horimono.

When 36 Ghosts arrived on Japan's bookshelves, the Japan Times Online published Horiyoshi III's Words To Live By, a must-read for fans of the 61-year-old master. This is one of my favorites:

"For some, getting tattooed is healing. To get a full-body tattoo takes years of suffering, and that requires maturing as a human, learning to experience and overcome pain. It is as if with each piercing of the needle, they become stronger and more complete."

Also check out the Needled video interview ...

Don Ed Hardy is offering limited edition giclee prints of two classic paintings: his Sailor Jerry Memorial, painted in the fall of 1973 five months after Sailor Jerry Collins died, and his watercolor/acrylic Virile Music, a work of automatic art, which Hardy describes as "approaching the work surface with no idea or preconception."

The prints are being sold online for $400 and $500 respectively.

The stories behind the work are as engaging as the imagery. A good read.

I'll also be keeping an eye out for Hardy's ceramics where he brings his art to Japanese porcelain.

Theo Jak and I like to fight. Not white knuckle brawling but a kind of verbal tussle where you respect what the other says but there's no way you're backin down. Theo's the old school of tattooing. US born but bred on the road, he was schooled via the street shop, not art academy, and while his portfolio is renowned and respected, he still finds the tattoo-as-fine-art thing pretentious. He longs for the old parlor mystique that tattooing once held. Not just the days before blogs and reality TV but way back before industry magazines and conventions. The days when it was truly an underground art. And so we fight.

I decided to record our last conversation at the London Tattoo Convention. It's a back and forth that's unlike any of my previous Q&As. He's definitely a personality. And, naturally, an interview with him starts off with a story. He doesn’t wait for a question:

Theo Jak: That guy we just passed by who said hello. When I just got over to Europe, in Amsterdam, I was a kid, that guy used to be a super-close friend of a guy I used to work with. He was always giving me ...

Pierre Chapelan, owner of Tattoo Mania, is a second-generation tattooer who has made a name for himself beyond the reputation of his father, Michel de Bordeaux. Leaving France, Pierre opened up shop in Montreal, which soon became a premier destination for serious body art collectors. Over the past few years, Tattoo Mania has consistently been voted as one of the best tattoo studios by the Montreal Mirror.

Pierre and his wife Val also host the highly successful Art Tattoo Show Montreal, a tattoo expo that also highlights the fine art work of the over 150 international artists that gather yearly to the historic Gare Windsor. The Fifth Art Tattoo Show will take place September 14, 15, & 16, 2007.

Pierre and I talked about what it's like growing up in the tattoo community and whether there'll be a third-generation tattooer in his family.

Being the son of well respected tattoo artist Michel de Bordeaux, and then becoming a renowned tattooer yourself raises a lot of interesting questions. Is it correct to say that you grew up in the tattoo world in France and this inspired you to become a tattooist?

Yes, you can say that I grew up in the tattoo ...

If the tattoo artist archetype, reinforced by reality TV, is a cocky, brash, reformed roughneck, then Matthew Amey is its absolute antithesis. Tattooing since 1991, Amey has earned a reputation for his work but also for being personable, intelligent, and down-to-earth. The thinking man's tattooist.

What strikes me about Amey, since meeting him over three years ago, is that he's constantly experimenting in various media and has a number of art projects going at any given time on top of tattooing and running Independent Tattoo in Delaware, which he co-owns with artists Todd Noble Holloway, Jay Cooper, and Tres Denk. Despite his busy schedule, we found time for a Q&A on tattooing and its evolution.

Let's start with the basics. How did you learn to tattoo and what was the hardest lesson for you to learn?

I am an autodidact or an automath, a self-learning individual who enjoys the challenges of the unknown. Quoting Joseph Campbell:

"If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, ...

Dean Schubert of Visual Tattoo in Arcata, California has just returned from Horikoi's Tattoo Summit in Toyohashi, Japan with some news and photos of the event. To see images of beautiful tattoos and scenes from the Summit, click on the Flickr photo set.

Having a keen interest in all styles of Japanese tattooing, I recently took it upon myself to go check it out first hand by attending the seventh annual Tattoo Summit, which took place July 15th and 16th in Toyohashi, Japan. This exceptional event is organized by Horikoi, a master of Irezumi.

The format was similar to what you'd find in the West; however, this gathering featured three different venues (night clubs) all within a short distance of each other. As a service to the attendees, a bus constantly shuttled people between the clubs. Some of the tattoo artist booths rotated out on the second day and new artists came in, making it more interesting for spectators to see new work.

The show featured an awesome display of talent representing all the various traditions found on the international tattoo radar. While the Japanese have offered the tattoo world their own unique traditional art, they have ...

For those interested in Japanese tattooing, the new limited edition hardcover on the life and work of Horiyoshi III is a beautiful collection of art and stories on the master of Irezumi. The book is written and published by renowned tattoo artists Grime and Horitaka, who has studied under Horiyoshi III, and offers an education in itself on the evolution of Japanese tattooing and its popularity around the world through one man's life story.

Copies are still available at State of Grace in San Jose and Art Work Rebels in San Francisco or can be purchased by mailing a check for $110 to either location for US orders. For international orders, see the price list here.

To get a taste of Horiyoshi III's work, check out this fantastic site, which also gives the meanings behind the motifs.