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Irezumi (入れ墨, lit. ' inserting ink ') (also spelled 入墨 or sometimes 刺青) is the Japanese word for tattoo, and is used in English to refer to a distinctive style of Japanese tattooing, though it is also used as a blanket term to describe a number of tattoo styles originating in Japan, including tattooing traditions from both the Ainu people and the Ryukyuan Kingdom.
By the early 21st century, tattoos were stigmatized in Japanese culture, and many Japanese associated them with the Yakuza. [4] However, there was a movement to revive the practice as a symbol of female empowerment and of their Ryukyuan cultural heritage. [ 4 ]
Horiyoshi III (Japanese: 三代目彫よし, Hepburn: Sandaime Horiyoshi, born 1946 as Yoshihito Nakano (中野 義仁)) is a horishi (tattoo artist), specializing in Japanese traditional full-body tattoos, or "suits," called Irezumi or Horimono.
A body suit or full body suit is an extensive tattoo, usually of a similar pattern, style or theme that covers the entire torso or the entire body. [1] They are associated with traditional Japanese tattooing as well as with some freak show and circus performers. [2]
Horimono can also refer to the practice of traditional tattooing in Japanese culture; while irezumi usually refers to any tattooing (and often has negative connotations in Japan), "horimono" is usually used to describe full-body tattoos done in the traditional style. [2]
The Japanese word irezumi means "insertion of ink" and can mean tattoos using tebori, the traditional Japanese hand method, a Western-style machine or any method of tattooing using insertion of ink. The most common word used for traditional Japanese tattoo designs is horimono. [8]
Despite his use of traditional imagery, Horiyasu uses a tattoo machine rather than the tebori needles. [20] [12] In a 2013 interview with Japanese tattoo artist Genko for Tattoo Society magazine he recalled that for the first year he worked with tebori needles and it wasn't practical so he switched to an Ed Hardy Magnetic machine. [25]
Traditional Japanese tattoos are still "hand-poked", that is, the ink is inserted beneath the skin using non-electrical, hand-made and hand held tools with needles of sharpened bamboo or steel. This method is known as tebori .