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Japaneze Black Sumi |
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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. |
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