The Japanese Tattoo
by Sandi Fellman
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Book Reviews of The Japanese Tattoo
Book Review: Great Photos, Weak Text
Summary: 3 Stars
If you have no experience with horimono, this book gives some excellent images focusing mostly on the works of three masters (only one, Horiyoshi III Sensei of Yokohama still actively tattoos). The book is worth buying for the images alone.
And I wish it were the images alone. The captions are often naive, bordering at times on offensive. The author at best over-exotifies and at worse verges on ridiculing some of her subjects, and seems to know very little about the tradition, history, and mores of Japanese society and horimono. Add to that an introduction that is almost unexplainably ludicrous (by an author with no bio!) and you have a book that's great to look at, just not to read. I'd give it 5 stars if it was just the photos.
Read Takahiro Kitamura's books as well as Donald Richie's for better information.
Book Review: You never saw Polaroids like this!
Summary: 5 Stars
Imagine life-size Polaroid photographs. Imagine traditional, Japanese, full-body tattooing. Imagine a book of life-size Polaroids taken of traditional, full-body, Japanese tattoos.... this IS that book! Sandi Fellman got the proper introductions and a great toy (a Polaroid that really takes life-size plates) when she went to Japan and set out to document the hidden world of the irezumi, the tattoo underground. This collection is almost all traditional hand-executed tattooing. The details are unparallelled, and you get to see all kinds of shading you might not notice at a distance. This type of body modification still is a secret, private practice in Japan and to view images of this quality is rare.Book Review: low standard tattoos in a below average book
Summary: 2 Stars
How disappointed I was by this book. It contains absolutely no news. The tattoo masters in this book do not meet in any way the high standard of irezumi that I am used to. For all you buyers who really want to learn about Japanese tattoos, read the book by Richie and Buruma, very informative. For photo's who are less blurry than in this book, just check the net or invest many dollars more for a proper book. ... . This book is a nice introduction for some common knowledge about Japanese tattoo art, but does not provide any new insights or ideas.Book Review: excellent (would deserve 5 stars - without the introduction)
Summary: 4 Stars
are you interested in japanese tattoos? yes? then this book is definitely for you! the photographs are great. and the tattoos on display are all done by some of the greatest japanese tattoo masters. the introduction i found rather bad; very artsy fartsy. but it's only a bit more than a page long. so don't worry. the complementary text sandi fellman has written i haven't even read yet - i've been way too busy looking over and over again at the tattoos. again: if you're into tattoos and/or japanese tattoos you simply have to buy this book!Book Review: The Japanese Tattoo
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a visually stimulating book - for both the casual observer, who will probably be horrified at some of the work, and for the Tattoo Collector - who will be inspired to new heights by the glorious array of Classical Japanese Artworks presented herein. Printed on heavy stock with beautiful color separation, this is truly an important reference of the Japanese repertoire.