How’re y’all doin? I hope very well! My name is Carl Hallowell, and my honorific Japanese tattooing title is Horisho (彫菖). Hajimemashite, “nice to meet you”!
I’m sure the strange juxtaposition of Texas vernacular and Japanese language was not lost on you in my introduction above. How wild it truly is! My path to the traditional Japanese tattoo has been a long one. I am very proud to be an American, and I am very proud to practice the Japanese tattoo.
Like French cuisine, Italian sportscars, and American music, the Japanese tattoo represents the zenith of the artform worldwide. It could be said that all tattoo roads lead back to the Japanese tattoo, or irezumi. The more that a customer gets tattooed, the further he moves towards tattoo sleeves, torso tattooing, and the full bodysuit tattoo. The spaces between the tattoos get filled in, disparate tattoos are connected by a flowing background… This is the Japanese tattoo invention. The tattoo moves, continues, spans the body from here to there, spills from one body part onto the next like a vast river of sumi Japanese ink…