Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Japanese Tattoo Glossary

  • Irezumi (入れ墨, 入墨, 文身 (also pronounced bunshin), 剳青, 黥 or 刺青) -- tattoo (noun) or verb)
  • Horimono (彫り物, 彫物, literally carving, engraving) -- tattoo. This is another word for traditional Japanese tattoos.
  • Horishi (彫り師, 彫物師) -- a tattoo artist.
  • Bokukei, bokkei (墨刑) -- punishment by tattooing.
  • Tebori (手彫り, literally to carve by hand) -- describes the technique of tattooing by hand.
  • Hanebori (羽彫り, literally to carve with a feather) -- a hand-tattooing technique employing a feathering motion.
  • Tsuki-bori (突き彫り) -- a hand-tattooing technique employing a thrusting motion.
  • Kakushibori (隠し彫り, literally hidden carving) -- tattooing near the armpits, the inside of the thighs and other "hidden" body areas. Also refers to the tattooing of hidden words, for example among the petals of flowers.
  • Kebori (毛彫り) -- the tattooing of fine lines or of hair on tattooed figures.
  • Sujibori (筋彫り) -- outlining, the outline of a tattoo.
  • Shakki -- the sound needles make when they puncture the skin.
  • Irebokuro -- from ire or ireru, which means to insert, and bokuro or hokuro, a beauty spot
  • Yobori -- "Yo" (European) tattooing. The Japanese-English slang term for tattooing done with the Machine.
  • Sumi -- The ink used to tattoo, traditionally mixed by the apprentice
  • Hikae -- Chest panel tattoo
  • Nagasode -- Arm tattoo, to the wrist
  • Shichibu -- Tattoo 7/10ths of the sleeve to the forearm
  • Gobu -- Tattoo 5/10ths of the sleeve to above the elbow

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.