When thinking about japanese tattooing, we easily tend to forget the new generation of artists emerging. Young tattooers who decided not to follow the traditional path of irezumi, but to follow their own modern approach, according to the globalised culture of contemporary tattooing. Nobu is one of the most talented Japanese artist now active. Being deeply influenced by the western culture of fine arts, his style focuses on realism and morbid horror. Scary!
You’ve been visiting Europe more often recently, what brought you here? I started coming to Europe, maybe 4 or 5 years ago? What happened was we were organizing « King of Tattoo » - the Tokyo tattoo convention- with Katsuta Noriyuki (boss of Tokyo Hardcore Tattoo Studio where Nobu worked) and one year we invited Teo Miliev, a tattooer from Lyon in France, also owner of the studio “681 Tattoos”. After we met I started doing guest spot there, then I went to the Paris convention: “Le Mondial du Tatouage”, coming to Barcelona as well from 2016, then Bruxelles, for conventions, guest spots, etc. I found Europe to be very easy to travel around. To me, it’s a good chance to see something a bit different, new stuff that I don’t really see in Japan because the most popular style is traditional japanese. Plus, the tattooing skill in Europe is incredible, there are a lot of good tattoo artists, way more artistic than compared to Japan.
Western art has a strong influence in your work, I guess you feel familiar when you come here? I get more influenced by classical art since I’m coming to Europe for the last 5 years. Before I was more into contemporary art. I really enjoy that I can travel and take pictures I’ll use. I don’t take any references but I use my pictures as a reference.
Where do you get inspiration from ? From pretty much everything: sculptures, furniture, beer bottles… Haha! You have to be aware all the time. You don’t really have to draw or paint 5 or 7hours a day. Of course, it’s better if you can do it but in reality you can’t. So you have to use your brain to get inspired and analyse how things are working up. I go to exhibitions all the time: classic art, contemporary, etc. When I have time in Europe I love to go to museums, just sitting there and do some sketches. I go to see paintings, sculptures… I was so surprised in France how good the museums were. I really love France. It’s so different, it’s like opposite Japan. Totally opposite. But it’s very old and there are other similarities too.
You started by studying western art right? I was an art student in California. I have a bachelor degree in 2D art. I came to college in Los Angeles because I didn’t want to go to university in Japan, there was no freedom there. By the time I was playing basket-ball, I had that american culture background that I was admiring, and the west-coast punks like NO FX that I loved... When I had to choose my majors at school, I chose art; that’s how I started drawing and became more interested in western art. There are a lot of good museums in LA where I could study. After that, I went to university for 4 years. One of my classmates worked in a tattoo studio. He took me to his shop when I decided to get tattooed for the first time at 20 years old I. His boss asked me if I wanted to be an apprentice and I was like: « Why not ? ». I didn’t know anything, but I started there, at Resurrection Tattoo in Pasadena, 10 years ago. I had to do everything from script writing, portraits, japanese, etc. When people come in a tattoo shop you have to satisfy the different tastes. My background is more like a black & grey, because of the black & grey thing in LA - the chicano culture, the portraits, etc. I finally left America because of visa problem and I got back to Tokyo.
Why have you decided to keep on working different styles at the same time, when most of people now tend to specialise ? I think I would get bored to focus on one specific thing. Plus, in Tokyo it’s impossible to specialise yourself. It’s a very low demand here. You can’t compare it with Lyon or Paris. So I have to make money from the variety of my clients and that keeps me motivated to do all kind of stuff. Japanese people ask everything here, there’s no trend; apart from japanese tattoos that are popular. Besides that, it’s hard to say what is popular, people ask so many different things and sizes: small and middle tattoos, sometimes big. Japan doesn’t have that strong background for the realistic tattoo, portraits and they’re still not really popular. At the moment, I have a huge clientele of foreigners - maybe 30-40% ?- living in Tokyo or travelling here. Somehow, I think I get kind of lucky with my « creepy-dark-bizarre-black&grey-sometimesrealistic » stuff because there are not so many guys who can do that.
Something you like a lot. The dark stuff comes from tattooing obviously, because since I started I’m a big fan of Roberto Hernandez, he’s doing such great stuff. Paul Booth as well.
You told about this creepy-morbid aspect in your work, is the dark side in japanese art an inspiration for you? We have very dark and strange art in Japan too, like gore or ghost type of thing. For example there is the work of mangaka Suehiro Maruho, he’s a comic artist doing really creepy stuff and some people really like it. I guess it comes from our strange history, especially after we lost the war. We’ve got raped so hard. That’s a crazy stuff. But people get fascinated by something… « unusual ». If I can show something like that it would be very interesting. There’s some kind of feelings in those type of japanese dark art, which are a little bit different from the western’s. If I could show a little bit the difference it would make good tattoos.
In Tokyo you were working until recently at Tokyo Hardcore Studio, which is a street shop. Regarding the trial of Taiki Masuda (the tattooer of Osaka has gone to court to fight for the legalization of tattooing after several shops got closed), did it make any anything for you? We shut down the website 2 years ago but nothing really changed. The cops even came to the shop! We were not hiding, we had a sign on the street. If Taiki didn’t fight back, everything would be finished. Nobody really knew tattooing was illegal until then, now everybody knows because of the news. Actually I’m quite surprised because everybody knows about it in the western world but nobody really cares in Tokyo. We just live day by day. We don’t know what will happen so we’ll see.
How do you feel about maybe getting back to the underground if tattooing gets illegal? I don’t really care actually. If we have to close the shops and work in apartment, it’s not gonna make any change. Let’s say: it’s like in New York 20 years ago when you had to know how to find a tattoo artists, plus the fact that we have smartphones now… I’m only worried about the hygiene problems.
Would you consider moving out of Japan ? Yeah, it’s a possibility but I love Japan.
Do you understand Taiki’s motivation to go to court ? Of course, to me they’re doing the right thing. Justice could be fighting back to the police but he lost the case, which is pretty negative for the next trial. So what’s the point? Tattooing has been in a grey zone for a long time in Japan, it may had been better not to fight back, to stay there forever… We have to survive with this job, we have to pay for the rent, etc. What about the old tattoo artists and the respect for them too? It’s very sensitive. If we make the change in Japan we’ll lose some of the conservative point of tattooing and I’ll be very sad.
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