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Edutainment > Japanese Body Tattoos - by Paul Binnie
Japanese Tattoo Art
Edo Sumi Hyakushoku - Hokusai's Water Falls
copyright Paul Binnie
Paul Binnie, born 1967, a printmaker and painter from Scotland, is in the footsteps of old Japanese ukiyo-e masters. Woodblock prints in Japanese tradition but with his own, individual and modern characteristics, have made him a famous artist all over the world. Since the 1990s he has created a number of woodblock prints depicting body tattoos.
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Japanese Body Tattoos
The early settlers of Japan, the people of the Ainu, are said to have used body tattoos. These reports are at least 1,700 years old. From then on the Japanese history has seen periods of great popularity of body tattoos and periods during which tattoos were even officially banned.
In the 19th century body tattoos were popular among the working class in Japan. Best known are the firefighters from Edo (Tokyo).
Paul Binnie, born 1967
Paul Binnie began making tattoo prints in the 1990s while he was in Tokyo for nearly 7 years learning the old art and craft of traditional Japanese woodblock and stencil prints. Since then, tattoo prints have remained an important part of his artistic output. For economic reasons, Paul Binnie often plans a new design in two versions, one with a tattoo and a tattoo-less, nude version.
The tattoo design are taken from famous Japanese woodblock prints by such artists like Utamaro Kitagawa, Hokusai Katsushika, Kunisada Utagawa, Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Harunobu Suzuki, or Hiroshige Ando. Paul publishes his body tattoo woodblock prints under a common 'label'. He calls the series in Japanese 'Edo Sumi Hyakushoku '. The English translation is Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo. 'Edo' is the old name for Tokyo but also the name of a Japanese period in history lasting from 1603 until 1868 - the period of the classical Japanese print - also called ukiyo-e.
Dieter Wanczura
(July 2009)
Gallery of Body Tattoos
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