Irezumi

Horiyoshi III Nakano Yoshihito is an artist that specializes in full body tattooing. If you don't know what that is, here is an example...

Not many artists in the tattooing industry dedicate themselves to full body Japanese "Suits", as they call it. This is a very time consuming tattooing style that most definitely take more than one single session to complete.This specific type of tattooing requires a lengthy planning process especially if you would like a custom suit instead of one the artist had made ahead of time. The Japanese style of art is called "Irezumi" or "Horimono".

Horiyoshi III was born in Japan on March 9th 1946 and has 40 years of experience in tattooing Irezumi. Horiyoshi's name comes from "Hori" in Japanese, which means "to engrave". This title was passed down to Horiyoshi III in order to carry on the traditional Japanese tattoo legacy. Horiyoshi main expertise revolves around his skill with the traditional tattooing manner without the use of an electrical machine, just a manual needle. This is a lengthier and of course more painful process. (Short clip below showing the procedure of traditional tattooing)

Horiyoshi III's talent has brought him a very long way, he launched a very exclusive high end clothing line by the name of "Horiyoshi the third", this was a big seller in top shops around the world. He has also founded the "Yokohama Tattoo Museum" in the year 2000. In this Museum, Horiyoshi III shows off collections of valuable art pieces and tattooing artifacts. There has also been many book publications to do with Horiyoshi. Many of the people who used the Irezumi style tattooing were in underground Japanese mafia and gangs so this style of tattoo was looked down upon and banned from multiple things including public hot springs and pools/showers. Horiyoshi was said to have Yakuza (Japanese organized crime) ties, thus exploiting him to the underground art and making himself more familiar with this style of tattooing.


More of Horiyoshi III's work can be seen here. (WARNING: Nudity)