Japanese Prints Of Tattooed Women By Bonten Tarô - Japan

Print from the series "Yoen Irezumi Bijin Gashu" (Voluptuous Tattooed Beauties Collection) by artist Bonten Tarô (1929-2008). Bonten Tarô was a multifaceted celebrity in Japan: tattoo artist, manga author, painter, playwright, designer, and cartoonist. He worked throughout his life to dispel the negative image of "tattoos = gangster/yakuza" and to make the world recognize tattoos as the "most primitive fashion" of skin decoration with images. Bonten Tarô is known as a revolutionary in the world of Japanese-style sculpture. He is the person who laid the foundations of modern tattooing in Japan by introducing colors other than black and red. But also, the introduction of tattoo machines in a very traditional world where only bamboo tattooing was considered the possible method. He illustrated Muhammad Ali's boxing robe in 1972, and tattooed personalities such as Charlie Sheen. In 1990, Tarô Bonten moved to Okinawa, where he opened a tattoo school. Japan, circa 1980, 29.7 x 42 cm. Technique: photolithography