Yutaro Warriorism [Traditional Japanese Tattooer Interview]

In this next episode of The Wild body Pavia the figure behind the ink interview Series where we interview Renown horishi or traditional Japanese tattooers from all around the world we will be sitting down with water resin warriorism is a japan-born london-based horishi whose compositions bring New Dimensions to the world of traditional Japanese tattooing join me as we sit down talk to warriorism and learn more About the figure behind the ink thank you very much for for joining us thank you so much for having me here awesome you know I I'm a big fan of yours

for for multiple reasons one I obviously like your your tattoo compositions but two I really like your your artwork like you compose you you paint and you make these different mediums of Art and it's great because not only do they look great but they're accessibly Priced Right they're not Extremely expensive right so I think that's great that you can actually buy your artwork without breaking the banks um so I'm looking forward to touching a little bit about that one uh towards the end of the interview write more about your art and all that stuff that

you're you're doing and lastly of course I'm very happy to have you here because I really love your go-getter straight shooter Warrior mentality and positivism so it's really cool to be happy here Amazing thank you very much that's really nice that's really nice of you all right so let's just dive right into it and you know for for the audience um I know you some might not know you so I'm just curious if you can explain what's your background and how did you get involved with wabori yes I mean I I am originally from Japan

uh yeah I grew up in Japan half of my life I was born In 1972 and I was there until 1996. so yeah then uh yeah I was through different careers I tried to become martial artists that didn't work out then I went into a Japanese self-defense Forest which is so what the National Guard for U.S or but basically the Japanese Army and I served there for two years um but I I wasn't really thinking to you know serve there for the rest of my life I Really wanted to do something like something you know

like something like yeah the Army wasn't my career like I I wanted to get out there somehow and somehow I discovered tattooing um I got into tattooing from motorcycle culture and music so I wasn't really into wobbly at all in the beginning for me my body was more for the outlaw people uh you know Yakuza people And at that time maybe in my early 20s I did not have appreciation for that type of culture um now I do from understanding more of it but at that time uh the outlaw people was so dog I don't

know I just didn't like their style like how I you know it's just like purely criminal activity and I sell like they're just kind of like um You know taking away from good people and stuff so I wasn't really like uh I don't think but it's not necessary I mean it's really depends depending on how how they do stuff some people you know really evil some people are like you know it's quite like uh honorable hardcore people it really depends so but yeah at that time I was really proud of it so I got into

tattooing about the motorcycle and the music culture So then um I went to this motorcycle shop in Tokyo I tried to buy motorcycle parts and I found a flyer of the statue shop and it was like 95 it was like early 95. at that time it was impossible in Japan to find a tattoo shop like everything was underground or you know the artists uh working in like you know just like one room of apartment and stuff like that so like When I saw the flyer I'm like oh my God like I could actually like get

tattooed in here like you know I like I was like always interested but I really didn't know where to begin there was no internet you know um there was no tattooed people around me neither so yeah I found the flyer I went to the shop it was in Tokyo then yeah this guy gave me my first tattoo And it turns out that he was like Born Into The Outlaw activity he was like quite high up in the acquisition being in Tokyo and stuff like that and yeah still then you know I had him do so

the western style tattooed on me he was kind of like really didn't know how to do it but he was just like making it happen then yeah he just like then he slowly revealing himself as an outlaw person And he started like recruiting me into the family and I I witnessed some of the stuff and I'm like well it's like I was you know 21 at this point like Mom you know like these people are like sort of Hardcore like maybe you know like I I wanted to get out of army too so like maybe

I can do something like this okay but then I start witnessing some horrible stuff like very like questionable stuff and like okay there Is no way there's no way this this is my world I don't think I'm smart enough to survive in this type of world you know this is not for me so I was thinking man but I somehow wanted to get out of the army then then maybe I started tattooing maybe I can get out of argue so like you know tattooing can be my profession I I watched him this outlaw guy at

work I hang out with him for a little while Then yeah but I really didn't didn't want to be Apprentice there because I saw some great crazy activity going I I really didn't want to go into detail here it's just gonna yeah very um yeah underground stuff yeah and uh yeah so I met this person uh while I was hanging out at a tattoo shop in Tokyo this another tattoo artist from out of town came to visit and and she told me that He went to California and learned how to tattoo in three months so

I'm like okay this is it I think I should go to America and you know learn how to tattoo at that point like I made a friend with both of them this outlaw guy and the guy who came to visit he was a biker guy and I made a friend with both of them I started borrowing their tattoo machine and I started doing myself friends and such and And um yeah then finally opportunity came and I you know went to America and long story show I got an apprenticeship in Orange County which is south of

L.A I got apprenticeship there I did one year of apprentice [ __ ] and they sent out uh actually I asked them if I you know I could start tattooing and they're like oh you know it's like You're not nearly ready and a friend of mine was like no no he needs to start tattooing he you know he has no money I was homeless at time so uh then yeah I somehow started doing professionally uh that was 1997. then from there so back to the the question how I got anything about boring I would still

fully into the western style I was more into the biker Style Blackberry skull and stuff like this well you know I look like this Asian guy in California customer automatically start asking me for the Japanese style Japanese style was already popular in California um you know back in the day it was already uh Greg James From Success Street Tattoo and you know Bob Roberts you know a lot of you know Southern California guy was already doing amazing Uh Japanese American and stuff and you know it was popular already so they you know my customer already

like automatically started asking me and I was thinking um yeah I mean you know I am familiar with the design but I don't know nothing of it sometimes my customer knows more of it and I start feeling a little bit ashamed a bit you know you know it's my own culture I should know more about it then then I started kind Of like desperately start studying about and then my appreciation started to Glow you know start to grow you know like little by little but always like I was so you know still apprehensive about it

because of you know the Japanese style is attached to you know Outlaw activity and you know quite strong stigma attached to it And I really didn't want to be associated with that type of you know activities and after that I was I had an opportunity to move back to San Francisco then I start working with uh Marcus Pacheco do you know Marcus yeah and you know he is like one of the you know Pioneer for the new school style from that you know 90s and I was like fully immersed into that type of style like

You know that's I was really attracted to it like since I started tattooing his tattoo was you know one of the best I thought like I was like so blown away by it in the Marcus and also grimy uh grimy was um uh grimy learned a lot from Marcus back in the 90s and you know he had a you know similar style and he took it into his own style So yeah I really wanted to do stuff like that but Everywhere I Go people kept asking me for Japanese style always and it became almost like

I was doing a new school style but also people ask me for a Japanese style half and a half so I always were studying but I never fully immersed with it because of my you know hang up with the association with that floor activity then finally um I can't remember what year it was maybe it was 2006 or 2007. no it was no 2005 2005. me and grime went to Japan together and we were traveling through Japan and I met Ichiban he was just getting started with that going but she came to where me and

grime were hanging out and he came like he sat next to us at the lunch table all of a sudden He just sat next to us and he showed me um SketchBook and it was already incredible like nobody know knew about him but right like like I I remember I like a first look of it I was like blown away so I'm like I turned around to grind hey Grime please check check out this guy's you know Sketchbook this guy's amazing and you know we start like running into each other I mean each day started

Running into each other like here and there and he started to come to visit San Francisco when I was living in San Francisco working with Grime at the time and he started coming to visit me and he stayed with my uh uh sorry the state at my house like you know three months at a time you know one month like I spent like a long time together and she was at that time he was already fully immersed in Japanese style first he wasn't doing Like like a total classic he was more like an antibiotic and

you know all sorts of stuff psychedelic stuff but when I first met him but by the time he was coming to visit San Francisco he was like fully immersed in Japanese style and something happened in me like oh wow this is something I can do like like then I started feeling like if I don't go this direction I am almost Sort of wasting my um what is the opportunity as as a you know 100 Japanese person then I've it wasn't like but part of me and like thinking like it's it's not very uh smart business

choice as me being Japanese doing something else so then of course you know spending time with each day I started developing a love for the classical Japanese style right but still for transition didn't Happen I would just you know trying to learn Japanese I was doing almost like 90 of Japanese style but it didn't do the traditional style in 2015 came I decided to move to London from California and before I moved to London I had to go back to Japan for a few months because of the diesel reason and uh and I asked Masa

he's the owner of three Types that doing Tokyo and Osaka and I asked Master hey I'm coming to you know Japan for a couple months two months and I was wondering you know if I could spend you know time I you know his Studio maybe make some work and stuff and he's like yeah totally no problem just come then I started you know uh I went there I stayed at the studio I stayed at their apartment then Then at the time ichibe is working there Mutual Nami and also mitochiro or hero horikiro and spending time

with them it totally blew me away and the inspiration from you know getting special from edochoyukai uh you know getting inspirational from um 1900s 1920s Japanese tattooing in Tokyo And I was like I've seen photo here and there before but I never like poorly looked into it and you know Holyfield like horizio shows me the photo and all this and this comes from this and she knew so much about it and I got sucked into it and that point I'm like this is it I I must do this I must do this this is it

I like I felt totally like not for it like I love the Tattooing before but I never felt that like this before and so that made me lead into bubbly Style it was like a really long answer for that question no no this this is fantastic I I I'm sure that everyone listening and watching are gonna love that story because there's so many things you you mentioned in fact I'll comment about a couple of them Um but first first active I'll stop with the controversial one I think something that many people might not understand is

that in the west you know tattoos or yeah they're sort of Outlaw culture biker culture but they're also just generally accepted right you see somebody walking down I don't know Walmart with tattoos it's like whatever oh look it's a cool tattoo right you might even like it and you might start up a conversation but in Japan right It's it's really traditionally for many many years hundreds of years associated with with the Goku though with the uh Outlaw culture right so even now in Japan it's it's very hard to you know you see somebody with traditional

Japanese tattoos and perhaps immediately you might think or he's he's from you know Goku with all his yagoza right exactly yeah and so you know I that's why perhaps Utah to hear a Wire resin here was apprehensive about you know or you know maybe I shouldn't get involved in this uh in this world right um but of course eventually you you came to appreciate the very rich culture that uh that you have right uh right that's that's very cool I also like you know you mentioned going full circle again starting in Japan agriculture the US

London you know going to back to Japan and meeting up with uh uh three ties right the guys have three Tides um that's very that's very cool I also like how everyone like supported each other in their Journey right you supported them when they were going to California they supported you when you went back and and wanted to dive deeper into it so that's that's awesome that's awesome Um actually I had another question I wanted to ask you but actually why don't we just since you mentioned it probably some people might have heard about it

before others might have seen pictures others might have no idea what I'm about to talk about about the adult if you can just provide more details on what it is Okay so I I'm not 100 sure what they are I think I think Holy Hill would be the perfect Person to ask what it is my understanding of them is it just it's just a tattoo club you know the tattoo club the food enjoys tattooing from certain area I think they're like particularly in Tokyo and the Oklahoma area and yeah they just have a gathering you

know it's just uh the public activity of them but my understanding is it's quite exclusive you have to be tattooed by certain artists and stuff like this But that's that's as far as I know I see a photo and video of them going to meetings and stuff A friend of mine has been in a meeting and he told me about it but I am not actually sure what exactly it is yeah yeah but I think you know like um I'm not sure that America have tattoo club yeah well maybe I'm about to I'm about to

start one here yeah yeah that that's amazing yeah here In England they had I heard of uh Bristol tattoo club they are some you know tattoo clubs here yeah yeah I'm not sure I'm not sure what they do and stuff like that yeah yes sorry I couldn't be much help no no that's that's exactly it right at a high level right uh it's basically that a tattoo an exclusive tattoo club with many years of of History right I think that that's my my understanding yeah if I might I might be off here and of Course

odinito or or anybody from there can just call me out right here but from the the little I know of of the other choyo guy that were initially I think they were members like they were tattooed by or Uno or something like that right yes or you know yes and also there's a uh some uh people from uh got tattooed by uh Oreos 2 chronoma yeah so yeah I'm not sure but they were those those all those artists were Working in Tokyo so in Edo Edo is Tokyo so old name of Tokyo so it could

be you know tattooed from that group of artists or something like that yeah awesome yeah my favorite my favorite artist for sure my favorite yeah those people and my parents both are from uh Bueno oh like uh yeah it's like a old old town of Tokyo and so I kind of feel the connection From my own lineage also yeah yeah that's awesome that's very cool I mean yeah like I could go on and on talking about this but we're here to talk about uh Mr Warriors so let me just go it's it's fine it's podcast

you know it's the free you know free form long form conversation so yeah so so going back to your style and you know how you know you've evolved um obviously you've had a long journey many Many years uh tattooing and developing your own porn um I'm wondering about your current style your current composition style what can you tell us about your your colors the composition style how you approach work yes so I I so I don't have you know put into the master I mean people uh who have mentored me the most Is grime and

also Marcus Pacheco and uh but you know they they are not classical Japanese style tattoo artists but they have taught me almost everything I know about tattooing tattooing technique composition drawing draftsmanship and stuff like that um my current style is basically I'm still In I'm still forming my own style I would say so it's a mixture of the classical Japanese tattoo artist that I like for example it's from yeah or you know one two three horius II um family so very much show all the style because I don't have classical tattooing style master so I'm

just I don't want to do it replication of you know classic Masters some somehow I want to put my own voice in it and eventually I like to create my own style but I'm in the middle of creating my own style from taking everything from everywhere and kind of like mashing it together to you know form my own style Um so I don't know how it's gonna be I don't know where it's gonna go yeah but basic basic composition I you know those are the technique I learned from Grime markets and my you know old

co-workers now and go uh you know they had amazing illustration Illustrated backgrounds and stuff like that so I I'm I still use that technique and also the color theory is you know make sure all different Japanese Masters That I like it's sometimes very monochromatic maybe I use just black and two colors sometimes I use black and three four colors it really depends I'm just trying different things to find out and hold I'm hoping to make something different and unique yeah I haven't really got there yet yeah that makes sense that's yeah did they answer your

question yeah I know that that didn't answer the question um and in fact I was gonna say You know as we were saying that some people you know some people have like Masters rightoshi family so what did your family many families right yeah but then when you look at some of the older Masters or some of the Masters that are still alive and right and they were so sorry yeah so they like like you were saying they grabbed from the stuff that they liked and they developed this amazing style of their own and now they

have their their Families and that's what you're you know you are doing very much something I think that makes a lot of sense to develop your own like really your own style right which is the best yeah something like this because like I find myself you know uh getting influenced from amazing artists you know and we have access to those you know photos to you know uh those amazing artists working right now and yeah I find myself getting influenced a lot because you Know we're on the Instagram looking and oh my God this is amazing

I'm gonna do something like this then I I find it nobody not not nobody but like it started becoming like Echo chamber the Instagram big started becoming Echo chamber and that was not my intention to getting into tattoo I got into tattoo because I wanted the different from uh rest of society you know I don't know Why I felt that bad that way but you know I wanted to be different but now like you know a lot of people making very similar stuff so you know I'm guilty my my on my own but I'm just

kind of like trying to you know wiggle wiggle myself to just like make something different in this Echo chamber then if that made sense no that makes sense in fact in this age of like you Know technology and social media and the algorithms that's exactly what the algorithms do right they create an echo chamber of the stuff you like so you keep seeing more and more and more of the stuff you like and then maybe you think that's all there's to it while you're just being very specific information there's a lot of stuff you might

not be seeing right so that makes that makes a lot of sense I've heard that before too from from other uh areas So not just tattooing so okay well actually I'm curious this might be a dumb question but but whatever I'm going to ask it anyway but I know you're you're like into you're like into fitness you're into martial arts I've seen some of your shots doing uh you know martial arts and it's like a warrior mindset warriorism right so I'm just wondering how made that have influenced your like your tattooing style and and Approach

um I'm not sure this mindset have influenced my my style itself but I think okay first of all I'm not a warrior at all that's why I had to name name my Instagram Warriors and Beast at least like there's my That's My Hope of you know something like maybe in my in my heart there's something I can kind of like a trying to achieve Does that make sense yeah yeah I I love martial arts you know I grew up with it from you know since I was a little kid but you know I was you

know I was never good at it and I you know I enjoyed activity but yeah definitely like um man it's yeah definitely I'm like I'm like quite surprised how you know how bad I am with it but um it's uh but I definitely enjoy myself like going Towards it and going towards it like okay like you know like I'm gonna trying to you know get closer to the mentality or like you know yeah when I you know when I uh Inspire with people from the gym and you know you know I get smashed like okay

like I'm gonna you know trying to like you know like I don't want to run away from it I'm gonna go towards it like in then how Can I defend myself and stuff like that so um you know nowadays you know people are like easily rewarded for like mediocre activities but I wanted like I definitely want to challenge myself do the max so you know when I die I can say hey at least I challenge myself I didn't run away from it So my tattooing Style is actually that I'm gonna just trying to challenge myself

like how can I either go towards something that I love and you know getting Japanese back piece is not easy at all you have to go through so much pain in so much different body area and to make the tattoo also you have to you know not not tight but like yeah almost you have to fight with people's Body to just you know deliver as much ink into their skin so yeah it's the determination determination of myself to make tattoo on them and bring the determination out of my customer to go through the you know

their process of transformation with that I think that has you know my martial arts mind is influencing that type of activity I would say no no that's it's 100 true and then on this day and age we like you said we were More mediocre efforts right because if not then we'll get it soon and a lot of stuff right so but then when you go to uh like a dojo or whatever and you're doing martial arts there's no filters right you either you know you get smashed or you smash somebody it's either it's black or

white right yeah exactly yeah that's very good now that's that's very cool and you know I I also I I have done martial arts my myself right and Like you say oh amazing it's a journey of self-improvement it's like you know you get smacked and then it's not like oh my God I gotta smack them I'm gonna go away and run away it's like I got smacked I'm gonna get stronger so I can smack you back exactly uh what what type of martial arts do you train oh I did a lot I did uh Taekwondo

either Judo either like action Greco-Roman wrestling the wrestling yeah oh my God that's awesome So yeah right right now I'm not doing anything but yes I mean when you had to say the most you know seven months old baby everything you know it has to be put on hold that's that's the that's the workout itself on your birthday and the date they keep getting heavier so the workout gets better yeah you know what I was I I I've been living in an apartment building right and uh the elevator was uh I'm in a very high

floor I'm not going to Mention the floor but I'm not in a very high floor and the elevator was occupied like there were somebody was moving or something and my wife was in The Barrage and she didn't bring the stroller so all we had was the uh I don't know the baby seat or whatever right so yeah grab the baby seat and bring it up up the stairs oh my God what a workout that was okay that's a workout do you live in New York is that is that what it is I'm in the New

York City area Yeah right right so like they have the high-rise apartment so oh my God it was yeah it was a work that day I was gonna do a car but I I do I do work out right so I do like weights and cardio and stuff but they were supposed to do cardio but then I said I already did the cardio here I don't need it that's enough for the day the conversation um we were talking about you know again Traditional Japanese tattooing martial arts Warrior mindset um I'm wondering do you have like

a favorite subject or theme to to tattoo yes I mean you know anything you know Japanese classic I love but within that they all my favorite uh mystical creatures dragons Phoenix kirinaku yeah something like this I like this Like uh God type of uh creatures that you know it comes from Chinese mythology and stuff like that yeah those are my favorite well yeah I saw your habitaku uh work in in your Instagram now many people will do it and it looks looks very interesting and cooling right yeah it's it's not most common uh subject matter

for the Japanese classic yeah definitely I'm fascinated by the story of it and the look of it yeah I Think yeah I think it's amazing yeah cool so you know in that same train of thought are there like figures that you would like to tattoo but but haven't had the chance to to do it yet right uh yeah I was yeah I was uh going through your question earlier and I was thinking um yeah maybe yeah full pull back piece maybe a cow show yeah from sequel then the the monk with The blossom tattoo yeah

I would like to do cow show back piece I've done like I've done a lot of different designs in Japanese Classics like uh um you know sleeves and back piece but cow show I haven't done so yeah definitely that would be something if somebody asked me to do it I'd be excited um yeah it's kind of like yeah definitely I want to have it in on my portfolio for sure yeah do you do you actually have like a Favorite suicide and car is it college or do you have a favorite character you know it is

sad this is gonna sound really really bad uh it's you know as tattoo and a Japanese tattooer I've never read cico then it's it's really bad of course I know the characters yeah uh Trojan and culture and yeah maybe I don't know the other characters but anyway yeah but those two like children and a Cow should definitely my favorite just knowing from uh classic japanese uh back piece yeah it's so bad uh you know Kiku that's right yeah Kiku told me many times Man City it's amazing it's super fun you should read it I'm like

oh yeah I read it and maybe right around it's so bad it was funny yeah yeah have you read it before I've read it I've read it now that I'm writing the the book I'm I'm rereading it again Right so but I couldn't oh that's right yeah I saw the the post the the book is book is done yeah bookish pre-orders are open so it should be coming out soon that that's amazing then yeah looking forward to see it yeah thank you thank you very much but yeah just going back to the sequel and uh

yeah it's an awesome yeah awesome story these crazy guys they're like they're you know they're the main characters of the novel but they're like Bad guys certain they're not good guys they're actually bad guys and and you know they're like righteous Outlaws I guess that's why the you know the book with all like characters right because they're like bad characters who do good stuff sometimes right right um so yeah actually uh probably Carlos who might be one of my favorite uh related characters because of his story he's just such a troublemaker He is he is

oh man I need to read it that's so cool that's so cool all right he's really among so also so actually the story girls and it's actually a couple of people who are like the scholarship character right they're like or might be in the military in the Chinese military right because we go down is based off of Chinese uh history yeah Um yeah they're like military people but then they like they love to drink and get into bikes and so this guy will show guy he gets into fights and kills people and then he lights

stuff in Fire and so in escaping from the authorities he he becomes a monk man yeah it's funny funny character yeah actually what I want to do next is I chose a couple of your Tattoo Works and so I'm gonna start sharing my screens so that we can you Can talk through through them okay yeah all right Perfect all right so I'm not gonna I'm just gonna shut up here and I'll let you do all the all the talking okay uh yes so this this is uh uh glendarino back piece uh this is on my

customer Adam she's he's like a wanna uh one of the toughest customers I have I have been tattooing him for quite a few years now I did his sleeve first and I actually this back piece is Already done and now on to his leg I'm doing uh dragons on his legs and yeah Gunday meal oh it was Adam's Choice he really liked the imagery so yeah I did my interpretation of it and actually on his legs he had uh kukai the Hmong from Esther track Buddhism and there is a whole Jew on the other side

yeah yeah actually I really like this piece and and it was such a pleasure to work with Uh you know I'm still working with him but it's always a pleasure to work with Adam yeah um yeah also I'm quite happy with the how um background black is looking in his skin yeah hopefully uh I get healed photos so I can post it on Instagram yeah yeah this is actually one of my my Favorites too which is obviously why why it's the first I work that we're looking at uh yeah for those for those listening uh

who might not be looking at the picture obviously mentioned uh and he's one of the wrathful deities of Buddhism and then you can see of course a lot of uh Cloud backgrounds a lot of movement in those spots which I love and then you have the Lotus uh flowers that that gundari is standing on and you know he's wearing like the leopard or tiger Or skin uh did it I don't know what what you can call that but clothes and and you know that he has snakes wrapped up around his uh arms right he has

multiple arms and it just looks very powerful like if I saw this in in public even though I know he's you know he's he's a Westerner or whatever but still it's pretty impactful right you see it like oh crap this is uh it's a really powerful powerful piece so very very cool to see This I'm looking forward to to seeing the healed pictures and more more shots of the work thank you thank you very much yes so yes this is Soulja Boy sojobo is basically uh the leader of kangaroo kangaroo is uh it's uh basically

in Japanese mythology there was uh these um practitioner living in Mountain they use a superpower And sometimes uh their uh drone as uh sort of Bandits or yeah sometimes they're like drawn as kind of like uh yeah monk type of practitioner which comes from uh I believe it's a should endo is a type of the religion the mountain worshiping religion in Japan and they spend time in uh Japan to uh you know discipline themselves to use superpowers so this design uh is tribute to Oreos 2 Mr chronuma uh you if you have hits his book

from kabulisha you might find very similar composition piece and I I love uh Warriors 2 so much and my customer asked me for the soldiable back piece I automatically you know thought okay I want to do a tribute to the piece um so there's a character uh the on the bottom three colors Tango on the bottom karstengu is sort of a servant of soldier ball Their face is actually saw the bird uh karasu means Crow so so they can they have a crawl uh face but actually they have you know they're like a human body

with the wings and stuff he doesn't have the karastengu but that was me and my customers so the you know we talked about it well we should put it there and he really liked the idea of a kind of stagness so yeah I put it there um Yeah this piece now um all the characters and maple leaves are colored so now I just have to become very Soldier ball and yeah we're very uh getting close to finish and he's also amazing customer and he wants to get us uh he he want he wants to uh

he wants to get sleeves after stuff like that so I'm really looking forward to expand on his bodysuits nice no I I love the the soldier Bowl pieces you don't see many of them right So when you get to see one it's very impressive ah thank you thank you yeah actually it's yeah I mean you know I see you on you know Japanese uh I mean I see you on uh uh for your students book so I feel like I've seen him a lot but I guess it's not really most common thing yeah well so

for those uh for those listening obviously you've got the karasu and the uh in the bottom sort of like uh going towards uh Soulja Boy you got the the Momiji the Maple Leaves you got uh of course Soldier Boy himself with wings and and the panda the feather uh fan it looks really powerful again I really like you know you mentioned Yoshi too and I also like Paulo Yoshi too a lot right and I think one of the things I mean yeah one of one of the characteristics that he has is you know the focus

on the on the subject matter right you you look at the let's say social bull right and there's not a Bunch of stuff put in there right the focus is on the main figures and then the backgrounds right that are very Dynamic so I think is a very good very good uh tribute to tahori yoshitsu I really like this one too thank you thank you very much yeah and yeah my customer's name is Juan yeah he's super nice guy yeah I always like look forward to work with him Yeah it's really easy to work with

shout out to uh number one I think Adam was done the name of the other fella quiet let's move on to let's see what we have here all right okay this one so this one is um uh yeah his name is Sylvan he is actually coming from Paris and actually all of the photos here that you have showing me like there like Everybody is super tough but all the sea is like like head ahead from everybody everybody else he takes Eurostar from Paris gets into London in the morning and she gets tattooed for five hours

and and he goes back to Paris that night and and he like she doesn't even yeah he doesn't even like yeah he he's not even faced like he hasn't really like expressed the pain like that this whole session yeah and I Do to his chest the whole and I did uh the only which is the Japanese demon and this the only fighting the the warrior Warrior is not anybody a particular Warrior he just wanted to have this battle scene uh between Good and Evil so we just uh pick that as a competition um I'm quite

happy with the spiral in the middle uh and the lightning coming in you know all directions I thought uh quite uncommon But look still classy in US and yeah but it yet Dynamic also so yeah definitely uh yeah looking forward to finish this one too yeah I think we'll finish it in no time how tough you know concerning how Taffy it is that's awesome yeah yeah in fact it was that spiral that Drew it's it's very hypnotic it draws your attention to it uh there in the middle of the Torso with And then uh the

lightning like you mentioned very cool original it's an original composition right like uh maybe there will be a warriorism book in the future and people will refer to this piece for inspiration who knows right and uh it it could be it just it it's almost like happened uh accidentally I did the hawk first and he came back to get the rest of the Torso and leg down legs down Then I put too few years on there and there was the gap between the hawk and the two figures and I just saw the spirals in there

like oh maybe I put the spiral and what about lightning there so yeah I like really didn't pre-made meditate on the composition but like accidentally happened there and uh yeah I think I think it's fun it's really fun yeah that was a great uh I don't know a great outcome right even though you say it wasn't Juan I also like how they sort of Pop right you did the background so well that it it almost looks like 3D right you can see the hawk and the and the tree sort of coming out from the clouds

and then right Dionne is like standing on on Stone or rocks and right you can see he's like in the foreground right so I really like the effects of of the foreground on the background in Here it looks very right very cool oh thank you so much yeah you can see like a sort of layer of yeah layers of uh yeah planes yeah awesome thank you well all right let's see what else we have in here okay okay so yeah this is um it's a power diver and uh yeah it's uh inspired after uh Queen

Yoshi's a good block print the famous One But I kind of like turned into sort of um I stripped it down the drawing and made it into sort of uh classic classical Japanese tattoo details um uh yeah his name is Connor he he's also interesting man now he lives in Taiwan oh she she works for the government and she does something there in Taiwan super nice guy then uh so yeah a lot of uh times he has lived in China so his others lived by this uh Chinese artist His name is both he's really good

I can't I'm sorry I cannot remember his name right now well put this thing when you remember yeah yeah and yeah it was a really amazing sleeve and you know I had to match it so I had a really you know fun matching that type of you know like trying to do my best to um you know match the quality and stuff like that and uh Yeah I'm uh quite happy with the dynamic composition of water especially the angle of the water bars you know continuing from you know arm to the chest it's almost like

going to you know very Dynamic angles and you know break it up by like a small uh finger Waters and stuff like that um yes yeah definitely like yeah I uh I mean I don't I don't want to talk too highly about my work but Uh yes I think a composition and stuff worked out really nice yeah he was super happy with it yeah I mean I'm looking at this and I'm thinking maybe you you know it already or maybe you just do it subconsciously but I think you're you're very very good at well we

just talked about the planes the different dimensions right because you can see the water in different layers and it looks very 3D even though Obviously it's it's been playing uh but it looks so amazing how you know you can see the octopus is in one plane and then you got the uh the the Prototype uh in there as well you can see the octopus sort of wrapping itself around uh around her um and that's that's very cool maybe that's part of your your style I don't know if you were doing it consciously or not but

I think that I haven't seen I haven't seen this these effects in many Other auditions so that's very cool that that's interesting actually yeah no I I don't do it consciously but maybe it's coming from uh you know illustration training with you know uh Grime and Lango and stuff like that you know we were drawing super technical stuff back then and you know we had to think about dimensions and stuff like that so maybe that type of stuff is kind of like reflecting on you know on this these uh drawings Maybe Yeah yeah awesome yeah

I don't really yeah think about it so much all right so that's awesome you know what that's that's the best way for for your own style to flourish right when it just comes naturally from you right yeah right so like awesome all right I think that that should be it there's many many other works that I really love that you've done but if I had to talk it through all of them then we'd never stop here I'm Gonna stop sharing but I'll call up particularly you have this um it's a cover-up job but it looks

amazed the guy the guy is like a huge guy yes so powerful it looks extremely powerful that's awesome thank you so much yeah yeah I yeah his name is Will and yeah I really enjoy walking with him through he's super cool guy and yeah he has a lot of like all the work from like her 90s and early 2000s He wants to cover all of it and uh yeah it was um I didn't know what was gonna be an outcome I didn't know how it was gonna look but uh so far you know almost like

I'm doing it as a blast over but a lot of old that do is you know cover it up by you know new ink so I'm quite happy and uh yeah it it was really good like uh this This particular honey I drew one thing it was a little bit more like classic horrino type of uh then but my customer particularly asked for like a more ex you know sad sadder classic like type of Honey expression so I have to redo it and that that redrawing made it like it was gonna be almost or you

know one preview back piece but From there because I redrew it so it became more of my own drawing and competition so yeah I no I'm really thankful for that too yeah you know it's it's really powerful it's like it's just it's powerful that's the word that's the word for it thank you thank you and he's a very powerful guy too yeah look he looks I haven't obviously I haven't met him but he looks he looks sorry yeah yeah totally he left he left every day Um yeah I'm super super tank for the maybe because

of my Instagram name but many warriors like comes to me and decorate themselves and I'm really really thankful for this I'm like well like you know I couldn't ask for any better customers yeah oh yeah I mean yeah your your handle warriorism but then I also think maybe I'm just speculating here but maybe the fact that you know you do martial arts There's this badass horishi in in London right it's this Japanese guy who's beating people up in in the Dodger right so no no yeah it's it's so bad yeah you shouldn't see me getting

smashed indoors yeah they're always the smallest guy in there it's it's so funny but man I love this so much so actually I'll sneak in here um you know obviously has it's it's community and I was talking to people I told them Hey I'm having Warrior rhythm in here awesome God do you have any questions uh for him that you like me to ask right many many questions came but I chose yeah just one of them and the question is around and I actually have this question too um but you know this person's wondering like

what keeps you motivated to keep making art in other mediums right I think I referenced it in the beginning of this uh interview that you also uh Compose and sell different mediums of art right which look awesome so the question is what keeps you motivated you're doing tattooing you got kids you're doing martial arts and then you're also doing all this different art stuff so [Music] um yeah I okay first of all I I don't paint enough yeah I go through the phase and uh I'm I'm uh I kind of came in peace with it

before I kind of beat myself up that like I'm not thinking as much as I should but like it's a creativity so I can really force it um but I'm it's always in my mind like you know next thing I want what I want to paint and stuff like that um yeah my day is like super duper tight from minute I wake up do that when I go To bed yeah I don't have like uh yeah maybe I have like 45 minutes of free time in the morning when I wake up early and stuff like

that but my motivation comes from goals like I have a things that I want to achieve so um it's not only one of them they're the multiple different goals in the multiple different activities I have a goal in tattooing I have a goal in painting I Have a gold in a parenting I will go in martial arts I have a goal in daily life so each activity coming from putting a set set my mind in those goals like so every morning I think about what I want to achieve and then I don't really think what

I have to do with it but I just think that I want to achieve this Or like I'm you know I'm achieving this basically then rest of it um rest of the action comes from the mindset because you I have already decided to achieve it there's this Arnold Arnold quote about if you don't have goals you're gonna be just like a boat drifting at Sea never getting to Port right and so that's like the importance Of having a goal that's how you get somewhere that's how you achieve stuff so I think it makes a lot

of sense that you say that hey I have a goal for for everything right because that's how you make stuff happen I do so myself so I agree 100 if with that mindset yeah it's like I always reference Google Map like you don't just start walking start walking to go somewhere you have to type in where you're going right and it just shows you the route That that type of stuff like you like or like yeah like you know when you're like putting a ladder on the wall you have to know where you put your

ladder to to climb the the correct spot to go the other side yeah so yeah that type of analogy yeah well all right did you watch the Arnold documentary from on the Netflix the Netflix one you know what I didn't Finish it but I've seen so many I I love the guy I've seen so many of his documentaries the story is amazing right guy from Austria in the mountains in Austria I guess into bodybuilding wins all these competitions then he moves to California he uh he gets into acting he becomes a really huge action figure

and then he's like you know what I want to be I want to be in politics too so he becomes governor of of California right he's just Living the American dream that's amazing she never stopped he never stops it's amazing yeah yeah Anita I need to finish that then that's like sir documentaries yeah it's really well made it's really well made yeah it's like a three part and the first part is bodybuilding second part is the acting and the third part of this politician you know there you go yeah it shows it shows you know

it's like a dirty part to his scandal stuff and it's not all like Oh he's great and stuff and yeah it's crazy to see his old now and yeah it's really crazy yeah awesome yeah I'll have to re-exist it but yeah very inspirational yeah I think it's also kind of funny how everyone who's like goal oriented and we have you know we're we're driving towards our goals everyone's like everyone has their the same or similar Heroes right so here we're talking about I don't know we both appreciate how I'm Sure we have a lot of

other figures and we also look at it that's been that's pretty cool yeah cool all right so actually shifting gears here a little bit because we've done again you've actually done so many cool stuff yourself right again sorry of in Japan you move into America you do your stuff in America you go to London you establish your own shop you're killing it in London you're killing in martial laws and art and then there's Actually this other piece I don't know if a lot of people know about it I came to know of it I don't

even know how I came to know of it but you did the temporary tattoo design for yoshiki Minato in in girihaji the Netflix TV show I'm just wondering what was yes experience like it was uh quite straightforward um so uh uh this uh woman from the uh special makeup team just contacted me and you know she wanted uh you know uh She you know she's making film like this and she she wanted like a Yakuza style tattoo and yeah she said she asked me so you know I just need to do the painting there's the

there's a measurement of the actor's arm and uh you know I can speak with the actor maybe decide subject matter and stuff like that so yeah then uh one day I got on the uh Um a phone with your ski I didn't know who he was and and uh so I just kind of mentioned a couple things couple subject matter then maybe a mask for masks were you know quite you know classic I think so yeah he he was okay with that so uh yeah later on the woman from the special makeup uh team uh

send me the measurement of his arm So based on that I just like made a Template and uh I did painting and they sent me uh that when when I was done with painting I let her know hey I'm done with the painting so she sent me this like motorbike guy like a delivery guy and I gave it to him and he took it to the where she was and they made the temporary tattoo and I didn't know what was gonna happen and yes she sent me a photo of emulator like now it looks pretty

good yeah I think they did a good job yeah Yeah so yeah it like I didn't go to the set or anything like nothing like I would just stay home and I can basically I did the normal painting and they were there it was yeah quite amazing I want to do yeah something like that more often yeah that's awesome that's that's cool that's interesting and it was um the tattoo Design was I think I you know I I'll put it up here on the screen later yeah um but it was masks and then there were

like enough uh cards I think or no yeah yeah exactly yeah it was like it's a classic pair of the drunken couple and the hunter yeah yeah yeah you know the gangster is always playing back in the day I don't know nowadays but all right so actually I have two more Questions for you before I I kick it back to you if you have anything you wanna you wanna talk about um this is going back to the whole horishi and incline but this one is what I I asked you know everyone I I have in

here and I start off by saying you know in Japan not everyone right but some horishi they established this bond with their clients while they're working and then after the work is done they still meet up and they still share and hang Out and stuff like that in the west or maybe even in Japan too right there are others who are jealous you know you come in you you go out and goodbye you know goodbye forever maybe um so I'm just wondering what's your take on the orishi client relationship while you're doing the work and

when you're when you're done right um okay I I think um like I I get as close as possible professionally I would say you know I care about them I care about their life how they're doing in their life and because I think it's very important for my customers that they know that I care that I care truly yeah but I'm not going into the boundary of their super personal area so I don't have relation Like I have a phone relation when they're at tattoo shop but when they leave the shop I don't have much

relation with them do you understand yeah yeah so I'm not like some customers do some ice some customers like I become more friend with them and you know we message each other more frequently and stuff like that but most of my customers like 99 of my customers when they leave the Shop they don't even want to talk to me stuff like that but when they show up like I'm asking how they are you know if they're if they're not doing well I spoke with them about their problems and stuff like that like I really care

about them but if you you know I mean I think well when when I started doing that maybe outside of shop I think it becomes a little bit too much so that there is There should be a line of you know professional and a personal area but when they're in the shop me caring about their life and what's going on their life is a part of my profession because for me the people are going through so much pain they're in the emotionally vulnerable state in that shop and me caring about them generally it encouraged them

You know and the IT empowers them and that's one of you know one of the strengths that we can go through the transformation you know when I'm when I'm encouraging them more that you know it becomes it gives them a power to go through their painful transformation even yeah so yeah I'm so it's like I'm not like too close I'm not like too far yeah I I think I'm in the middle yeah yeah and there's no right and wrong uh answer here it's just some just yeah curious you know it's super but from what you're

saying you know it's hey it's a very close professional relationship which is which is great right uh it's not like they come in here and you don't care about them at all you just want to take their money and and get done with them right not none of this it's it's uh because of the how Much pain that they go through it's not it's not really a business yeah yeah it's just that much of pain changes a lot of things it's it's not a normal business you know but yeah so don't yeah yeah that makes

that makes sense cool so actually the last question I have for you here is you know you've been doing a lot of awesome awesome work I'm a fan I'm following everything you do so what's what's next what's next for You um next for me is just keep keep doing uh large pieces keep doing uh you know I like to do back pieces as many back pieces as possible yeah that's that's for my tattooing goal yeah so as far without doing what's next back pieces yes yeah and you know there's many other stuff for my life

of course of course yeah right awesome awesome well you know I before I Hand it off to you if you want to give any shout outs or you want to talk about anything specific I just want to thank you very very much for for taking the time here you have so many things going on and yet you decided to invest the time with us here and and share a little bit about who you are and and what drives you so that's awesome I'm very thankful for you taking the time with me here that's really amazing

see you thank you so much for having me here it was a Super interesting um actually before I noticed your work on the Instagram like few days before and uh like we we did the interview first then on on the online interview but few days before that uh my co-worker Gabrielle he mentioned hey you Carlo did you see this thing called the robbery pedia you know someone's making in encyclopedia or black Japanese tattooing I'm like well That's cool like you know like I I need that you know I need like I need to study that

then I like you know that was a conversation and I really didn't think about it then maybe I saw your pace after done like oh this is the what Gabrielle was talking about let's you know give you a photo then the interview happened that's cool yeah then after that you know you know we mentioned about podcasts and you're making it happening you know it's really Awesome I really appreciate you know your passion for classical Japanese tattooing I you know I I didn't like the guys in Japan the artist in Japan is incredible but you know

I'm not sure if you know but they're you know they're suffering because they're doing in Japan is not popular um You know there's incredible talents in in Japan and you know they're all amazing and they don't have you know place to express themselves you know uh you know so some guys are like doing it in incredible incredible work you know for example or a hero each day foreign you know of course they're carrying the tradition and the culture but a person like you with you know amazing passion outside of Japan making work like this uh

in my opinion Maybe not everybody in Japan would agree with me but in my opinion you are helping this culture alive you know you don't have to be a Japanese person to make that culture alive you know you just have to have a love and passion for it and I really really appreciate what you're doing so thank you thank you so much oh thank you and thank you very much for for the kind words of law stop by saying shout out to uh Gabriella I Didn't know that the story so shout out to yeah he's

a really good guy I love having him at the shop yeah yeah it's uh yeah yeah no I'm really thankful that he's with me at the shop yeah yeah I'll also yeah yeah no actually I wanted to ask one thing yes nice nice so I can I can read about it that's amazing you you covered a lot of things There's a 100 plus figures that are covered in the in the Box a lot of a lot of figures a lot of content okay can I ask what what what do you do like are you a

writer or I do a lot of stuff uh let's put it this way because I'm trying to stay separate you know personal stuff from from what would it better but I've tried extensively around the world for for business okay and I've lived abroad I've lived in Japan for example I was in China I've been to Germany uh here in the US obviously wow wow and you know I have many many passions as well business I have my other stuff going on I have one body video because uh of course passion for Japanese tattoo I'll link

it up to your comment about you know how it helps uh keep uh traditional Japanese tattooing alive and that's exactly my goal right my goal is to Make that connection between East and and West and show the world what an amazing culture uh yeah traditional Japanese uh tattoo ideas I think ultimately I sometimes I think about it myself right um I've never heard any negative feedback but sometimes I think about it myself like hey here's this american guy uh who speaks multiple languages talking about traditional Japanese tattooing but I think that ultimately I'm just driving

Interest and revenue to those Japanese tattoos right I'm making them more popular if you will in a sense and and driving business uh towards them right because people will want to go to the to the source um of course I'm also reaching out to people in in Japan I had a little interview like an online interview with with horikashi and I'm also I think with other other um traditional Japanese tattooers based out of Japan right Um yeah I'll save the names but they're they're in the works yeah they're they're coming I mean they're coming that's

so cool but yeah that's that's really it just keeping the culture alive driving more in business and interest to all you amazing orishi and it's just uh you know good-hearted uh intentions nothing nothing evil or whatever uh about it that's awesome that's awesome then all right well I don't know if there's Anything anything else you want to add or if we're good here but again thank you very much for for everything you do for for supporting you're one of the Kickstart Kickstarter uh backer so thank you very much for being another supporter yeah yeah of

course of course so uh okay so I I don't remember I did the kickstarter thing do do I order the book or I don't remember how it works yeah that That's hilarious that's hilarious and I love it because you you just backed it because you love the project you didn't you didn't even know yeah I was just like okay that's awesome yeah I appreciate that but yeah you you're gonna get I can't remember right now exactly um because there's multiple tiers I can remember exactly which one but for sure you're getting uh you're getting a

book you're getting the hardcover oh nice So oh yeah for sure um I'm really looking forward to getting the book in in your hands and getting your thoughts thoughts about it right um this is the first edition I foresee there being many more editions and other books for you know around traditional Japanese tattooing so thank you very much to you and to the community who's who's supporting this uh initiative uh to go forward amazing yeah thank you so much for all Your work if you would like to learn more about the world of traditional Japanese

tattooing follow the waburipedia Instagram page hit like And subscribe in the YouTube and Spotify channels and stay tuned for the meanings and stories by Japanese tattooing horishi interviews and more