Hokusai no Taki is the fourth in my current tattoo series Edo Zumi Hyaku Shoku (A Hundred Shades of Ink of Edo) - which have had a surprising international success - and it uses images from Hokusai's famous Waterfalls series for the tattoo designs. In addition, the model is shown with water falling on his back, the spray of which is represented with hand-applied gofun, so the idea is reinforced in the print design, and the theme is continued in my seal, which this time represents a man in a barrel amongst waves (connecting to the idea of going over a waterfall in a barrel) made from the letters of my name. I have used this idea for creating seals in each of the prints in this series - a cat seal in Kuniyoshi's Cats and so on - and another motif in the group is that parts of the image escape from the border. In this case, the model stands outside the border, and is only cut off by the bottom edge of the paper, which is my usual dai-ōban size, around 43 x 30cm (17 x 12 inches). Number One (1/100) from the edition will be auctioned Artelino.
