Lens Work

Capturing the Japanese Tattoo / Part 1

The first time I encountered irezumi happened when browsing a local bookstore. It’s spine made an impression on me with it’s tall, slender, soft bound back bearing the title, The Japanese Tattoo. Thinking of it now, it’s undoubtedly affected the way I approach photographing my tattoo work.

It’s a fairly common book, not hard to find, though the images within were produced with an extremely rare Polaroid camera; only five ever made. The photos, called plates, are the work of an American photographer- Sandi Fellman. The camera, which had a width and height of three-and-a-half by five feet, weighed over two hundred pounds. In little more than a minute, this camera can produce an instant photograph of twenty by twenty-four inches.

Check back next week for another installment of, Capturing the Japanese Tattoo.