29. Takahiro Kitamura on Kumonryu
My name is Takahiro Kitamura, curator of Perseverance, and I have a client here who has actually turned himself into Kumonryu, the Suikoden hero. When he first came to me, we did one dragon on him – on his back extending to his arm. And then about a year later he did one from his ribs down his leg. After that one he wanted to discuss where to go from there. We talked about it and I was like, well, why don’t we do nine dragons on you?
So rather than getting the image of Kumonryu, which is very popular – I have two other clients in this exhibit who have Kumonryu tattoos on their back – but rather, this client has actually become Kumonryu. So we tattooed nine dragons on him. I did a bit of conceptual design at first, utilizing no background, rather using the bodies of the dragons to fill up the space. And then later I added a little bit of background just to kind of tie up the loose ends. I’m really happy with this piece, I’ve known this guy for many years, he’s a great friend of mine, and I think this is one of my favorite tattoos I’ve ever done.
