Kintaro - Feminine?

In the past month I've noticed two pretty young ladies sporting Kintaro tattoos. Does that strike anyone else as rather odd?

Kintaro, a semi-mythical character supposedly based on a real fellow by the name of Sakata Kintoki, is the quintessential Japanese masculine figure. He his known for his great strength, and his legendary exploits in battles alongside Minamoto no Yorimitsu. In Japan, it is a common custom to decorate a young boy's room with images of Kintaro, in the hopes they will one day be a strong young man.
I cannot deny that perhaps there is a certain "cuteness" to Kintaro. The Kintaro image, especially in a childlike rendering, denotes a certain gentleness. It is this combination of strength and kindness which drew me to the imagary.

Mapping mythological figures across cultures is always difficult, and I'm not a mythologist by a long shot. But the first distinctly American figure that comes to mind when trying to find a cross-cultural analogy to Kintaro is Paul Bunyan. As you may know, Paul Bunyan is a mythological lumberjack who entered American folklore in the mid to late 19th century.
From Wikipedia:

One legend says that at the mouth of the river in the Two Mountains area near Saint-Eustache, Quebec, loggers stormed into battle against the British, among them a fierce and bearded giant named Paul Bonjean, monikered as "Bonyenne"....Defender of the people, the popular hero's legends moved up-river from shanty ("chantier" in French) to shanty.

Later iterations of this story coupled Paul Bunyan with his trusty giant blue ox sidekick, Babe, a similarity to Kintaro and his fondness for playing with animals. Legends of Bunyan often feature outlandish feats of childhood strength, much like Kintaro's most famous tale in which he wrestles a giant koi. In this picture Paul is carrying an axe - another symbol long associated with Kintaro.
So again I ask - given the cultural significance, is Kintaro an appropriate image from a woman, or has this bit of Japanese folklore been taken out of it's context? I'm leaning towards the later, but I'm always open to other explanations and opinions.

For you enthusiasts of Horitoshi family artists, Toshihide will be working out of local shop Invisible NYC for two weeks starting on July 20th. Contact info for the shop is here. Give'em a shout for more info on availability! Here are a few pics of his work:

Sorry for the mediocre pics and the poorly tied fundoshi! That's all I got.

this koi was the last bit, mostly white on the fins and some color on the head

The camera when off here by accident, but it's better detail then the other front facing pics..

Painting in the background by my wife..

Big news - I just completed my munewari tattoo on Sunday night! After 7 years, wow.  Of course, I still have a few things planned; but this is a big milestone for me.  Pics soon.

Hiya Folks,
Been a busy month for me, but here's the down and dirty:
The tattoo is progressing nicely. We spent one session filling in some leaves orange on my forearm and my tricep.  Wow, a little bit of color on my arm changes everything!

We also worked on the koi on my torso some more, filling it in with more black and gray. Next time, we'll put some color in there.

I stopped by the NYC Tattoo convention a few weeks ago, and actually had a better time than I expected.  I got to chat with Mike McCabe about his "Tattoos of Indochina" book. He signed my copy afterwards.  Nice dude!

Signed, you can have my copy for $1,000,000 USD

Oh, and here's a related article that came up today on the Needles and Sins blog about an effort in Thailand to crack down on religious tattoo tourism. Interesting stuff.
Speaking of Needles and Sins, while at the convention I finally got a chance to meet Marisa Kakoulas. She's the primary contributor / blog queen round those parts of the web. It was nice to harass her in person instead of just on Twitter for a change. (follower her here and while you're at it, follow me too here.)
Shinji was hanging around the convention despite the lack of an offical New York Adorned presence, and he was nice enough to introduce me to Bill and Junii of Diamond Club Tattoo Studio in San Fran. Good people!

That's Junii on the right, sporting a Horitoshi suit! Pic is not mine, pulled from flickr

I spent most of the convention sitting at the bar, people watching.  Pretty damn entertain stuff.  Till next time!

Last session we started to fill in the koi on my left torso.  I think at the next session we'll be able to finish the black entirely (not just in the koi, but the entire tattoo). Apologies for the rather blurry pic, I'm short on time this AM. We just hit around the 200 hour mark by my not-very-precise count, for those wondering how long this takes.

I also thought I'd share a pic of my lovely fiancé and a gentleman who stopped by her bar a few weeks back. Facial tattoos....yup.

Oh, and here's a link to an interesting blog I happened upon recently. It follows the progress of a back piece by Yokohama Horiken and features great photography.

During my last session we went and filled in everything waiting for some red ink.  That meant mostly work on my arm, and some on my torso.
We're getting very close to completion now! Shinji and I are already talking about next steps, and have a few ideas we're considering.  Nothing huge, more like finishing touches.
It's difficult to imagine what it's be like when we reach that final day, we've been working on this project for so long that semi-regular tattoo sessions just seem like a part of my life.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I just moved to a new apartment and the last month has been crazy.  I've got an appointment later today, and we're finally starting some color on my left arm, so that's pretty exciting.  During my last appointment we got the whole koi filled in, an olive green with some orange and red highlights on the head.  Looking pretty good!

Sorry, I whined a little about my busy month, when that's nothing compared to the last few weeks in Japan. My thoughts are with them.  If you feel so inclined, you can make donations here via the Japan Society, an organization I'm a member of and trust.

Well, it's been a long time, but I finally have some progress to report! As soon as I heard Shinji was back in town, I setup an appointment.  That was 2 weeks ago, and I have another scheduled for tomorrow.  Here are a few shots of the recent work, you'll note we started to fill in the koi on my left arm.  The plan is to color it similarly to the one on my right torso - primarily black and highlighted with color around the edges and on the head.
Shinji is scheduled to be working out of Adorned soon and accepting new clients, for those of you looking to get in touch with him.  I believe he said they were planning some renovations, and he'll start as soon as that is completed.  I'm sure the shop can fill you in on the details if you give'em a call.

Shinji back in the States!

Got a call from Shinji yesterday, and he's back in the States! I'm very excited to start working on my tattoo again after waiting for months for his visa situation to get sorted. Whoop! Expect more updates soon.

Shinji pulls out the tattoo machine to work on the outline on my back, circa late 2004 when he still worked out of the 2nd Ave. Adorned location. Wish I had some picks from the old 55 Tattoo shop!

Apologies for the lack of updates, unfortunately there just isn't a whole lot to report.  Shinji is in Japan getting his visa sorted, and until then I'm just holding tight and hoping we can finish up this project soon.

Recently I met up with Adrian Lee of Bloodwork: Sleeves fame for a photo shoot.  He's working on a new book entitled "Bloodwork: Bodies" that's out in October of 2011.  If the pictures turn out well then I'll be in that book,  but even if I'm not, I'm curious to check out it out as the previous book looks amazing. Photographer Max Dolberg was also there making the camera go click-click and being very patient with me. Two very nice cats, best of luck to them on the book! 

Thanks to the folks at New York Adorned for the color pic, nabbed from their blog here. They also hosted Adrian's shoots while in NYC. The b&w pic is from Adrian's page.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I don't have an appointment with Shinji again until next month. I'm anxious to get started again! For now, check out this great gallery of tattoo pics, mostly pretty old: http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter/2010/09/tattoo-trends/

(Link via Needles And Sins blog)

Oh yes - the outline is completed! Bring on the color! Not fully healed, but I'm just too excited to wait. The only downside of this latest tattoo session is not being able to swim during some of the hottest weather in recent memory. ;)

Here are a few shots of the latest work.  It's been a month since I was last tattooed and I'm still not fully healed! Yes, my healing time is a little slower these days, but I think the main issue this time is the area in question is constantly rubbing against my jeans and being irritated. If I had to do it over, I would have worn a bandage for a few days.  That or not wear pants for a week - although, that tactic may not go over well with my neighbors. ;)

Is it strange that I'm often unable to answer questions regarding the details of my tattoo?  If someone asks me, "What exactly is tattooed on your left thigh?",  I usually can't remember.  I guess it's because I don't spend a whole lot of time looking at it, and I didn't really participate in the design process other than in the broadest sense (along the lines of "Yup, more koi and maple leaves sounds good.")

Question of the week, from random guy at the beach:

"Yo! Yo! Yooooo! How much that tattoo cost?" 
"A lot" 
"Yeah, but how much?!" 
"A lot"

Gotta love the classy folks at Coney Island.

Next session: will the background be completed? Could happen, we're pretty damn close.

I've been considering putting this together for a while now based on the amount of questions I get, and I finally got around to it.  I was reminded yesterday after Shinji decided to do a little touch up work on my backside.  Here's a chart which illustrates my personal experience with tattoo pain.

Green is "Drill, baby, drill!", yellow is "Yeah great, I can deal", orange is "How much longer?" and red is "MOMMY!".  You can't see it here really, but I'd put armpits in the red and inner biceps in yellow-orange. Two important things to mention: first, this is my own personal experience and is by no means universal - I'd really like to hear if this matches your own!  And secondly, behind the knees, shins, and top of feet is based on anecdotal info - but opinion seems to be unanimous. 

For the record: I think anticipated tattoo discomfort is a terrible reason to not get a tattoo. An hour or two in the studio is over before you know it and forgotten that day, but a tattoo lasts a hell of a lot longer.

A few things:

• Here's a great tattoo blog I read occasionally, and I was reminded of it again today when they gave this blog a mention: Needles And Sins. Why can't I come up with a catchy name like that? Another difference is it's regularly updated and covers a variety of topics. So check it out! Today's post talks about some big changes at Adorned.
• I've said it before, but really folks - there's a pretty big difference between a cannabis leaf and a japanese maple leaf.  For those who rarely get a chance to look at the stuff before smoking it, I've put together a handy visual aid. 

I have a tattoo appointment today, wonder what we'll work on?

Today marks the six year anniversary since I embarked on my Japanese tattoo adventure. Wow, time flies! A lot has changed since then. When I started, Shinji was working at the since shuttered 55 Tattoo studio on West 19th Street. After the last 4 1/2 successful years at New York Adorned (during which the fabulous Brooklyn location was opened), I'm very happy to say Shinji is now on the verge of owning his own private studio! Congratulations, Shinji - I'm so happy for you!

Let's break down some numbers:

• 5 full years of tattooing
• ~190 hours of tattoo time (that's about 1 2hr session every 3 weeks)
• 2 book appearances and 2 magazine appearances (and featured in all sorts of Adorned material)
• 1,000,000 bottles of ointments and creams

One number people are always asking about is money spent. I won't give a figure, but I will say that my initial estimate of 20K-30K turned out to be quite accurate.
Here's a shot of me after my first 2 hour session on 5/29/2004 from Ye Olde Blog archives, with the three tattoos I since covered up still visible:

This morning I was looking over my very first blog post, in which I wrote "To me this is a work about strength, perseverance and transformation." How did I do on those? Yes, I persevered. Am I stronger? Well, I guess I am more confident in my strengths after the aforementioned perseverance. Have I been transformed? Yes - but only to look at ;).

Some things I learned:

• Don't consider undertaking such a tattoo unless time and money are no object.
• Respect your tattoo artist and their craft.   Treat him or her like a professional and an artist.
• Be ready for pointed questions and stares.  I can be aloof by nature so this is still a tough one for me.
• Japanese tattoo was an entry point for me into the world of Japanese art and culture in general,  which has been tremendous.
• There is a vibrant tattoo community out there which is worth exploring.  The artists can be fiercely competitive but I also sense a common bond and mutual respect/admiration among peers.  Those of us who enjoy receiving tattoos are in it for as many reasons as there are people, but at the end of the day the is an understanding through shared experience and art.

I'm not sure why I started blogging about this.  Hopefully this has provided some sort of useful information to someone out there and is not a worthless journey to the center of my ego.  There have been some great people that were connected to me via this blog, and for that, I'm thankful.

Now lets see if I can get this finished in the next year!

Just got back from the NYC tattoo convention. A few artists that caught my eye: Jess Yen, Boris Tattoo, Dan Henk, Noon, and Horitoyo. Oh, and "hi" Dmitri! Nice meeting you.

Here's a great article with tons of old school Japanese tattoo pictures and some wonderful insights from artist Horihide.