Nakano was inspired when he saw a Yakuza (Japanese gangster) with a full-body tattoo in a public bathhouse when he was a young boy, "about eleven or twelve.

"[5] His wife, Mayumi Nakano, is the general manager of his public "Tattoo Museum" located close to the Yokohama Station, which he founded in 2000.

Human history alters the look of the animals and plants I paint, and when the person wearing them dies, so too do they.At Horiyoshi's studio in Yokohama, Japan, tattoos are outlined mostly freehand using an electric needle.

He restricts his motifs to the classical repertoire of the vast variety of traditional Japanese stories and designs: peonies, koi, dragons, tenyo (she-angels), etc.

"[7] Horiyoshi III's work can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and may require weekly hour-long visits over the course of several years to complete.