A finished large-scale Japanese tattoo project - Backpiece into leg sleeve - depicting Taira no Tomomori and the ghosts of the fallen Taira army following the Battle of Dan-no-ura.
The composition flows from the backpiece down through the leg, with the spirits of the defeated warriors emerging from the turbulent waves.

One of my favourite aspects of large-scale Japanese tattooing is the opportunity to tell a story across the body, allowing the imagery and background to connect naturally as the work progresses.

Tattooed by me, Ryan Ussher, at Lighthouse Tattoo in Sydney, Australia.

Thanks for looking!

Big cover up on lower back almost done! By Marcus Mancini in Buffalo NY 😎❤️🙏🏼

Done by Joe Haasch at Heart In Hand Arlington. Back of arm in comments

​Lower arm healing on my very first tattoo. Full sleeve project with waves and clouds, featuring an oni, dokuro at the elbow, and momiji leaves. Moving to the upper arm dragon in the next weeks.

​Huge thanks to Fabio Grazia (@fabiopuntog) at Black Hobo Society, Bologna.

​What do you think?

Photos taken at the Winnipeg convention after we finished my clients backpiece. Sleeve around a year healed !

Instagram @haydenthompsontattoo

Please visit
http://www.chrisbuckholts.com

Here are one year healed photos of this Phoenix sleeve I did on Dallas who traveled from Alaska and completed the sleeve in several sessions over the course of a month. More photos on my instagram

https://www.instagram.com/clintonleetattoos

Big cover up on lower back almost done! By Marcus Mancini in Buffalo NY 😎❤️🙏🏼

Just finished my 5th session. So far each session has only been about 3 hours but I think it’s coming along pretty sick. It’s Fujin, the god of wind. Most the line work is done. The background has a specific swirl motif that the artist includes as his signature with his work.

Artist goes by Genie Tattoo, he’s an older artist who has worked with the actual yakuza for a long time. Unless you’re in Japan you probably won’t be able to get any work done by him, cause he’s no longer permitted to travel internationally lol

My work at Mama Ink in Seoul. The snake’s detailed scales contrast with the broad flower petals and open space around the design.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations for a tattoo artist in the Mid-Atlantic area (Baltimore/DC/Philly, though willing to travel further up the East Coast for the right hand) who specializes in sumi-e (ink wash), painterly black-and-grey, or fine-line Japanese nature work.

The Concept: A Japanese jungle crow perched on the branch of a Japanese maple tree. The trunk and main branches form an open ensō curve, with falling leaves forming a small pile at the bottom right. A fox is stepping into the open space where the ensō dissolves.

The Vibe & Approach:

• I want to lean into the fluid, expressive nature of ink wash (sumi-e), soft grey wash gradients, and natural brushstrokes—avoiding heavy traditional irezumi background bars or thick outlines.
• I'm newly ordained as a Soto Zen priest, so the symbolic harmony, non-dual narrative, and space in the piece are meaningful to me. I’d love to work with an artist who appreciates the philosophical grounding of the composition and enjoys building mindful, organic flow.
• I have a rough visual layout mock-up I could provide to clarify the composition and narrative rhythm I'm looking for, but I want a human artist to take the idea and fully redraw/re-imagine it in their own brushwork style to fit my body.
• I'm an old pale white dude, and this would be my first (and maybe only) tattoo, so want an artist comfortable working with designing for aging skin.

If you know of any artists or shops with great portfolios in ink-wash simulation, fine-line nature, or painterly East Asian motifs, I’d deeply appreciate your recommendations! Feel free to PM or post here.

I already have one knee tattooed with a cobra and I wanted a similar idea on my other knee cap utilizing an animal head and a shishi would fill the gap perfectly. I just want to know if it would be wonky/unlucky to only have one shishi. If so I guess a work around would be another smaller shishi head on my knee ditch but we will see.

So I’m going to japan in a couple months and while I’m there I’m getting an irezumi tattoo. I want to do a full sleeve, however I’m not sure if I’d ever be back in Japan to get the full sleeve completed. So my thought process is to get a finished half sleeve while I’m there and then when I’m back home I can get the lower half of my arm finished. Has anyone done it like this or would the composition of the tattoo look weird? Especially since I would like a dragon incorporated into it and I see a lot of dragons going full sleeve. Would it be better for my tattoo artist in Japan to do the full sleeve outline with some of the shading done, that way I can come home and get it finished. Or do a completed half sleeve and get the other half finished when I get home?

Ok so right now I have american traditional tattoos and I’ve been looking deeper into japanese traditional because i’m slowly realizing that the whole patchwork thing is kind of not my style 😬 do you think i can work around these or should i try to get them covered up?