Classic Ukiyo-e Tattoo

Some of the most striking and influential Japanese woodblock prints from the Edo and Meiji periods are those with designs within designs, as artists produced portraits of actors, samurai, outlaws and other marginal characters whose skins were covered with tattoos of demons, dragons, snakes and similar creatures in all manner of diverse configurations. Many of these would form the basis for modern-day yakuza tattoo motifs, and are now increasingly referenced by tattoo artists worldwide. "Cla...