Bad_Boys_Tattoos_page

JAPANESE PRINTS

A MILLION QUESTIONS

TWO MILLION MYSTERIES

Ukiyo-e Prints

浮世絵版画

Port Townsend, Washington

BAD BOYS AND THEIR TATTOOS:

TATTOOS IN JAPANESE PRINTS

-2-

NOTE:

Many visitors to this page probably noticed

ages ago that there were no new postings.

For that we apologize.

But now we know that the work on this page

will never be finished. At least, not in the way

we imagined it. First the guy getting the tattoo

fell off the radar. Then the tattoo artist

left town and odds are he won't be back. So, for now

we will leave this page the way it is until we decide to

do something else with it.

Sorry!

THE PROCESS

YEOW!

Above is a (doctored) detail from an 1868 print by Yoshitoshi

showing a tattoo artist at works on one of the bandits of the Suikoden.

BLOOD AND INK

There is an incredible disconnect between the majority of collectors and lovers of Japanese woodblock prints and the world of tattoo. And yet if said devotees are not too narrow in their focus they are more than aware of the fact that tattoos play a fairly prominent role in the history of ukiyo-e design. Of course, the first artist who comes to mind is Kuniyoshi who must have stunned his world with his dramatic creations of figures from the Water Margins. But it is one thing for a person to look at a dramatic image created on a piece of paper more than one hundred and fifty years old and the real-life world of today's tattoo studio. That is why we started this section. I count myself lucky that my path in both time and space has crossed that of both a local tattoo artist and an amenable young man, J.W., who agreed to let me follow the progress of a full arm tattoo. Unfortunately, I was a little late in arriving and so missed the very first stages, but I am sure from the images I will be providing you will be able to extrapolate backwards to when his arm was totally bare. But before I show you some of the images I want to say a few more words about the cultural divide. Back in the 1950s, pre-Beatles and long hair, good boys and girls were never or astronomically rarely tattooed. There was an edgy underworld of drunken sailors, pimps and ex-cons who sported "MOM" in a heart design on their chests or arms or some codified form of flash art which seemed to hearken back to the 1930s or earlier, but they were the rarities and they never showed up in 'polite' society. This was the age before the prevalence of gang tattoos. The darker undercurrents were made visible to the general public only in movies by types like the vanilla-angst-teen-heart-throb James Dean or the steamy ex-boxer-motorcycle-riding-wife-beating-tee-shirt-wearing Marlon Brando. But they were just acting. As far as I know neither man had a real tattoo. If they did it really doesn't matter to me because, like I said, good boys and girls never got tattoos back then. Now let's leap forward a few decades. Its funny how counter-culture becomes mainstream. Who would have ever thought that the blue-blood-country-club-golfing-ivy-league-elite would have spawned a whole generation of tattoo wearing children who in many cases are also pierced? Not those good old folks who grew up in the privileged white bread days of the 50's and 60's. And what about the grandparents? My goodness. Heavens to Betsy! How things have changed. (And yet some people never change. At the same time that one group is rushing forward another remains glued to the past. Sports is a great place for viewing this clash. None or almost none of the champion San Antonio Spurs have tattoos. But watch them play the New Jersey Nets some time or any other team for that matter and the contrast is striking. Then there is Dennis Rodman who is in a category all his own. And what about Johnny Damon? Would he or wouldn't he? George Steinbrenner bans beards and long hair. For $52,000,000 for a four-year contract I would cut my hair too. Actually I would cut it for a hell of a lot less. Make me an offer.) Below are a series of pics of J.W.s right arm. We hope to be adding to this group until the image of the dragon is complete. And for your edification and perhaps your sometimes queezy edification we are going to show the process too. While this method is considerably different than that practiced in Japan in the early nineteenth century the end result is pretty much the same. We hope you enjoy the journey. Oh, and thanks once again to the cooperation of the tattoo artist and the amenable young man.


ABOVE IS J. W.'S TATTOO BEFORE HIS SESSION ON JANUARY 11, 2006


PREPARING THE INKS FOR THIS SESSION.


SOME OF THE COLORING IS BEING APPLIED. BECAUSE THE INK IS RED IT IS HARD TO TELL WHAT IS BLOOD AND WHAT IS NOT.


I ALMOST FORGOT TO POST THIS IMAGE. IT SHOWS THE FULL EXTENT OF THE WORK DONE AS OF JANUARY 11, 2006. WITHOUT THIS PICTURE HOW ELSE WOULD YOU BE ABLE TO JUDGE THE PROGRESS? OH, YEAH, THAT'S MY CAR IN THE BACKGROUND. WOULDN'T WANT YOU TO MISS THAT LITTLE FACT.


FRIDAY FEBRUARY 10, 2006 THE NEXT SESSION

CORRECTION I had only posted the image shown above for a few hours before someone contacted me to say that the tattoo machine upside down and that I had photographed the wrong side. How can there be a wrong side? Oh well. Perhaps they are right. So, sometime in the near future I will post the corrected image. Until then my apologies to all of those tattooing purists out there who have noticed my mistake. In my defense - I never claimed to know what I was doing. Besides I like this photograph.

THIS PART IS FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE PROCESS AND WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW IT WORKS Step 1 (in this case only - other tattoo artists may do it a bit differently): Prepare a stencil to be applied to the part of the body which is to be tattooed. Step 2: Shave and antiseptically wash the area to be worked on. Step 3: Apply the stencil by leaving behind only the outline in ink. Step 4: Go to town applying the outline using a tattooing machine. (The image above is the machine which was used. It was built by T. S. of Georgia.) Step 5: Treat the area which had been tattooed and apply bandaging to protect it against infection.

THE NEXT PART OF THE STENCIL TO BE APPLIED SHOWN ABOVE


THE HAIRY ARM	PARTIALLY SHAVED


ABOVE SHOWS THE AREA WHERE THE STENCIL HAS BEEN APPLIED PRIOR TO TATTOOING. LOOK CAREFULLY AND YOU WILL SEE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE STENCILED AREA AND THE CLAWED FOOT WHICH HAS ALREADY BEEN TATTOOED.


ABOVE IS THE AREA FRESHLY TATTOOED SHOWING THE RAISED RIDGES WHERE THE SKIN HAS BEEN IRRITATED. WITHIN A FEW MINUTES THIS AREA WAS BANDAGED TO PROTECT IT FROM INFECTION AND FURTHER DISTRESS.