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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.
Nakano was inspired when he saw a Yakuza (Japanese gangster) with a full-body tattoo in a public bathhouse when he was a young boy, "about eleven or twelve." [3] This inspired him to visit legendary tattoo artist Yoshitsugu Muramatsu, also known as Shodai Horiyoshi of Yokohama. [4]
A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing processes and techniques, including hand-tapped traditional tattoos and modern tattoo machines.
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]
Dealers of card or dice games often displayed these full-body tattoos shirtless while playing. This eventually led to the modern yakuza tradition of full-body tattooing. [1] [4] Bakuto were also responsible for introducing the tradition of yubitsume, or self-mutilation as a form of apology, to yakuza culture. [3] [4] [5]
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 ]
He is noted for his illustrations of "macho-type" men, often with yakuza-inspired irezumi tattoos. [1] Mishima, along with Tatsuji Okawa , Sanshi Funayama , and Go Hirano , is regarded by artist and historian Gengoroh Tagame as a central figure in the first wave of contemporary gay artists in Japan.
Many yakuza have full-body tattoos (including their genitalia). These tattoos, known as irezumi in Japan, are still often "hand-poked", that is, the ink is inserted beneath the skin using non-electrical, hand-made, and handheld tools with needles of sharpened bamboo or steel. The procedure is expensive and painful, and can take years to complete.