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black sumi
Japaneze Black Sumi
4N519
12 oz $49.50
Japanese Tattoo Ink - Wash painting developed in
China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).  Wang Wei
is generally credited as the painter who applied color
 to existing ink and wash paintings. [1] The art was
further developed into a more polished style during the
Song Dynasty (960-1279). It was introduced to Korea
shortly after China's discovery of the ink. Then, the Korean
 missionaries in Japan, in helping the Japanese establish
 a civilized settlement introduced it to Japan in the mid-14th
century. In wash paintings, as in calligraphy, artists usually
grind their own ink stick (Japanese: sumi) over an ink stone
 to obtain ink, but prepared inks are also available. Most ink
 sticks are made of either pine soot or oil soot combined
with animal glue (Japanese: nikawa). An artist puts a few
 drops of water on an ink stone and grinds the ink stick in
a circular motion until a smooth, black ink of the desired
concentration is made. Prepared inks are usually of much
lower quality. Sumi themselves are sometimes ornately
 decorated with landscapes or flowers in bas-relief and
some are highlighted with gold. Wash painting brushes
 are similar to the brushes used for calligraphy and are
traditionally made from bamboo with goat, ox, horse,
sheep, rabbit, marten, badger, deer, boar or wolf hair.
The brush hairs are tapered to a fine point, a feature vital
to the style of wash paintings. Different brushes have
different qualities.   A small wolf-hair brush that is tapered
to a fine point can deliver an even thin line of ink (much
 like a pen). A large wool brush (one variation called the
big cloud) can hold a large volume of water and ink. When
the big cloud brush rains down upon the paper, it delivers
a graded swath of ink encompassing myriad shades of
gray to black. We used this historical aspects to create
the best tattoo pigments to achieve those effects on skin.