Fading ink: Japan’s ‘hand-carved’ tattoo masters fight to keep their art alive

Oscar Holland, CNN
5 minute read
Updated 8:02 PM EST, Mon January 7, 2019
Horiyoshi III, one of Japan's top tattoo artists, demonstrates his technique at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. Scroll through the gallery to see more tebori tattooists at work.
Horiyoshi III, one of Japan's top tattoo artists, demonstrates his technique at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. Scroll through the gallery to see more tebori tattooists at work.
KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Artist Horimyo tattooing the shoulder of calligrapher Hayato Suzuki in Tokyo.
Artist Horimyo tattooing the shoulder of calligrapher Hayato Suzuki in Tokyo.
YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Horiyoshii III is renowned for his full body designs, which can take years to complete.
Horiyoshii III is renowned for his full body designs, which can take years to complete.
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A woman receives a tebori tattoo at the Hong Kong International Tattoo Convention.
A woman receives a tebori tattoo at the Hong Kong International Tattoo Convention.
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Tebori artists use rods to manually push ink beneath the top layers of skin, leaving a permanent mark for either decoration or, historically, punishment.
Tebori artists use rods to manually push ink beneath the top layers of skin, leaving a permanent mark for either decoration or, historically, punishment.
Keith Tsuji/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images
Japan's tattoo artists have existed in a legal gray area since 2001, when the country's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare decreed that any action that involves putting "pigment on a needle tip and inserting ink into the skin" could only be carried out by a medical professional.
Japan's tattoo artists have existed in a legal gray area since 2001, when the country's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare decreed that any action that involves putting "pigment on a needle tip and inserting ink into the skin" could only be carried out by a medical professional.
Keith Tsuji/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images
Japanese tattoo artist Horihito at his tattoo studio in Kawasaki.
Japanese tattoo artist Horihito at his tattoo studio in Kawasaki.
KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Japan's centuries-old art of 'hand-carved' tattoos
Tokyo, Japan CNN  — 

At a small, clinically-lit studio in Tokyo’s Roppongi district, fearsome warriors and mythical creatures gl