Obsessed with Tattoos

Some of the nicest Japanese tattoos with mainly flowers depicted that I've seen. These bodies are true works of art.

Oh, not intentionally!! It's detailed in my early Bunshin posts: The Bunshin book was so damaged from a flood that hit my house that it was molded all over and had to be thrown away immediately. But I wanted to scan what I could before having to throw it away. So I did. However, the pages were really thin (my only gripe about the book) and some of the most badly molded pages that were stuck together tore easily even as I tried to be patient and gentle. I can restore a lot of things in Photoshop, but not much can be done about those big rips. Normally I don't upload the badly damaged/ unfix-able ones, but this is one of my favorites.

Love the way the waves and water compliment the flowers. There is a section of photos of the book that have fewer photos from different people rather than several views of one entire bodysuit. Were towards the back of the damaged book and thus are more torn than some of the others I've uploaded, but I fixed them up as well as I could. This bodysuit is my favorite non-dragon piece. Beautifully done!

(Also, shisei is another word for Irezumi, and the title means something like Full-Color Japanese Tattoo Encyclopedia). So it surveyed a bunch of different artists in 1973, and Horiyoshi was one of the few that later got his own book.

Oil paint on canvas paper.

Another beauty by Katsushika Hokusai!

Chines Lions are my favorite motifs in Japanese tattoos. The color print is by Kuniyoshi, and the rest are by Hokusai. Love the detail and movement put into these prints, and they'll always be good for inspiration of tattoos!

Various carp ukiyo-e prints.The first is by Utagawa Toyokuni (歌川豐國). The second print features Kintaro wrestling a carp by Katsukawa Shuntei. The third features Oniwakamaru (鬼 若 丸) about to kill a carp by Kuniyoshi. There seem to be tattoos with the standalone courageous carp, but I also love it when tattoos reference prints of legends like Kintaro, Momotaro, and Oniwakamaru. I love how the backgrounds of waves differs in each print, from tangling with a carp as it ascends a waterfall or as it thrashes in the sea.

I've searched and searched, but can't find this on the internet for download, and even the sites that sell cheap copies of Japanese flicks don't have this series. In fact, I can't seem to find many of Koji Tsuruta's gambler/ yakuza movies.

  Hi there- sorry, but this particular tattoo was one of the ones featured in the beginning, so there were only photos of the front and back view. I have a close-up, though it has a glare. I also included a similar tattoo from a movie still, though it's not as good of quality.

Bunshin: Full Angle Photos One of the full angle photo sets. A dragon and tiger combination with a popular Suikoden warrior on the back. Took away the mold stains as best as I could, so apologies for some of the pages that are still chipped and discolored.