Tattoo art in yakuza 3

A moins de 24h de la sortie de Yakuza 3 en France, petit retour sur l’un des éléments qui participent à l’immersion dans le jeu : les célèbres tatouages des Yakuza.

Tous ceux croisés dans la série de jeux ont été créés par Horitomo san dont vous trouverez la bio (en anglais) ainsi que des photos de quelques unes de ses oeuvres ci-dessous.

Horitomo (real name: Kazuaki Kitamura), born 1971.

Horitomo-san began tattooing in 1992. At that time he was not versed in the art of traditional Japanese tattooing. Instead, he focused his studies on the western style of tattoo artistry at a street tattoo studio. At that time studios which advertised their services openly on the streets of Japan were a real rarity.

Following his initial studies, Horitomo-san went on to work at various tattoo studios based in Tokyo and Osaka. In the meantime, he was also actively taking part in various tattoo conventions, including shows in Amsterdam and Spain.

In 2001, he finally began to learn traditional Japanese tattooing from a master of the style.

Four years later, Kikuchi-san (producer of the Yakuza series), saw some of Horitomo-san’s work in a magazine which featured several of the best traditional Japanese tattoo artists of the time.

He was impressed by what he saw and decided to get in touch with Horitomo-san at his workplace in Yokohama and ask him to be a part of the team for the first Yakuza game. He has continued his relationship with the team ever since that time. Horitomo-san is currently working at “State of Grace” in Japan Town in San Jose, California. You can view some of his incredible designs here: http://www.stateofgracetattoo.com/horitomo.html