Tokyo, Japan

I was given a wonderful invitation to visit this beautiful city and country. To experience there culture and the way they tattoo. In the year of 2002 I was blessed to have visited there twice. Welcomed by the Horitoshi family.

I hope you enjoy the slide show that I put together. My visit included offering the Alliance of Professional Tattooist class in cross contamination. I was also given the opportunity to watch and learn a few of the techniques in hand tattooing, which is called Tabori. And attended a Cosmetic convention.

Click on the pictures below to take you further into Japan!

More Pictures of Tokyo

Horitoshi Family

Convention Pictures

APT

A TRIP TO JAPAN & A PLEA FOR UNITY

JAPAN the rising sun, a country that sees the sunrise first. A nation that to me seems years away. How many of us, as tattooists, have not longed to peer into the ancient and sacred ways of a Japanese Tattoo master? It has been years of preparation and prayers that my opportunity to visit this land now has come true, but became more than I could have ever imagined. My first contact with Horitoshi 1 was at the Tattoo Tour convention in San Francisco. The next time we met, I received a tattoo from Horitoshi in Los Angeles at National's convention. This past spring I met another member of the Horitoshi family, her name is Yuko, and she has a cosmetic tattoo business in Tokyo. I then was invited over there this past spring to attend one of their cosmetic conventions. I saw the opportunity that we could present the APT cross contamination course. As a representative and instructor for APT, I visited again in October, but was graciously allowed to become the instructed in the coveted techniques of hand tattooing and a secret world of traditions of Japan. It is indeed such an elite society, where the full bodysuit reigns and the "family" is knit together by strict ordinances, built upon honor and authority. I need to share also about the hospitality of the Japanese, I was welcomed into their home, which is a high privilege, and was honor to have had this offered to me. The food was delicious, and I dared not ask what I was eating. After a long day of working everyone would meet in the family room, we would then eat, drink and sing songs. Like so many tattoo artists, Horitoshi likes to play the bass guitar and sing songs. My time there was shared with Bill and Junii Salmon from the Diamond Club in San Francisco. We were blessed to have had a day of travel, where we went and visited Mt. Fuji and the waterfalls nearby. From what I have seen and experience I can only hope that my new friendships and opportunities to visit this land will again happened. Stepping into a culture with such a different language gives new meaning to being a foreigner. The magnitude and volume of people was amazing - a sea of people, busy 24 hrs/day! A culture where everything and everyone strives to be perfect. I believe that crossing the oceans and making APT more of an international alliance is probably what is needed. I hope that people would realize the importance of unity. This will give us more of a voice and the numbers we need to be represented in government. Our legal system here at home is simmering behind the scenes and our profession is lacking representation. A Japanese senator was present and reviewed what took place there. This was perhaps an indication of just how much their government is getting involved. A full class was present for this first time and, by our choice, it was not large. With months of preparation to translate so much information, and for the first presentation this was a good class. I am grateful for Koji, our translator, who was eloquent in translating from English and represented APT at a highly professional level. As is traditional in the Japanese code of honor, it was required for him to review and be aware of what he must translate. Much work went into all the preparation of this: Horitoshi family and Artmake, Inc. contributed so very much to setting up a building block that can only improve the betterment of tattooing. We need unity and the numbers of individuals in order to represent ourselves against the growing powers of government. Some of you are aware of the Ron White's case in South Carolina, which was presented to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court did not even look at this case, and I believe the reason is that they view this as an issue that was not important. We missed an opportunity here by not being collective in our numbers by writing letters or phone calls in speaking out on our concerns to tattooing. It is very sad to see the apathy of so many that are not willing to unite or support this industry. In the state of Hawaii, they have a license that regulates tattooing, decorative and cosmetic. Part of that bill was to regulate cosmetic tattooing overseen by a physician. Because insurance companies did not want to cover the doctors, few of them, if any were willing to oversee anyone practicing tattooing. Because of the demand, people continued to do it outside the law. The state now has decided that they cannot regulate it. So where is all of this going? The need to tattoo safely is paramount; the need to teach and share this should be our priority. We face a time in history that if we really want tattooing to be professional, then we need to act professional. Although we may speak different languages, we really are all the same! The key to communication is the ability to listen.

All photos copyright©Dennis Dwyer