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Sumi Botan

  • Posted by Carl Hallowell
  • On July 28, 2015
This will be my last shared post from Carlhallowell.com to Facebook, for a while at least. I want to keep all content exclusive from site to site, including my instagram feed @featherhand and the shop feed @elmstreettattoo. The purpose of all of these accounts is primarily to showcase my traditional tattooing and traditional japanese tattooing, […]
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Peony sketches for HR

  • Posted by Carl Hallowell
  • On July 15, 2015
The old way is tired. The new way is fresh. The old attitude is jaded, the new, exuberant. Clinging to old ways, old habits prohibits renewal. Renewal is natural, renewal is springtime, renewal is vital. Renewal is not stopping the mind. Not stopping the mind allows it to be everywhere at once. This is the […]
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Tenka Gomen

  • Posted by Carl Hallowell
  • On July 7, 2015
Ohayo gozaimasu! Sujibori irezumi today. I am practicing the japanese language now, in addition to studying it’s great images, which I have been pursuing for over twenty years. I am also studying Yamato’s written languages, and the calligraphy practice of shodo to write them. It is a slow journey, but it is a passion that […]
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Liberty School

  • Posted by Carl Hallowell
  • On June 27, 2015
Liberty Electric Tattooing was my tattoo parlor I opened in 2002 and ran until 2009. I was run out of my hometown of Ft Worth, Texas by city planners, gentrification, and big business. I fought like the samurai the tattoo business had taught me to become. But my two swords were no match for the […]
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Mikiri, The Japanese background

  • Posted by Carl Hallowell
  • On June 14, 2015
Japanese tattooing is king. In the tattoo above, you see Mikiri, a Japanese tattoo background pattern that is an essential part of traditional Japanese tattoo design. It spreads across the body like water and like the wind it so often depicts. It is vast, large, and limitless like the void. It is challenging, deep, and […]
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East and West: A Tattoo Story

  • Posted by Carl Hallowell
  • On June 2, 2015
Slowly, I prepare my station for the tattoo to be done today. There is only this tattoo, there is only now. The future is nonexistent, the past is void. There is no hurry, there is no pain. There are only the materials to be prepared. Stainless steel needles and rich, thick black ink. Barrier bags […]
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Horimono from the Bottom Up

  • Posted by Carl Hallowell
  • On May 22, 2015
Mr. C is back. Come to find out his pilgrimage to irezumi was not made by accident. The road that brought him here was paved by meditation, manga, and anime. Not to mention photos he had seen here and there of the beautiful horimono worn by the Japanese. Does not the other intrigue us so, […]
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Sumi Irezumi: A Japanese Tattoo

  • Posted by Carl Hallowell
  • On May 9, 2015
Well, well… Four hours in the tattoo artist’s chair can tend to pass by like a dream, with the correct mind settled beforehand. Some have no fear, some have no weakness. Some struggle to regain their breath, and then are able to “climb the hill” of continuing their tattoo again. Zahm conquers this tattoo session […]
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Sumi-E

  • Posted by Carl Hallowell
  • On May 7, 2015
Today i will begin anew. Today i will embark on the “journey of a thousand ri”. Today has loomed on my horizon like a vast city of gold, just out of reach, but there in plain sight. I have performed my purifications, I have bolstered up my studies. I have attempted to correct the mind, […]
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Sujibori, or Outline Stage

  • Posted by Carl Hallowell
  • On April 25, 2015
The Tora And Snake This young man here came in with the right idea. I am very lucky he came to me. Or perhaps I deserved it. Or karma led to this chance meeting. Or the tattoo gods presided over the realm we walked that night. Either way, here we are, and there is nothing […]
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