How To Choose A Tattoo Artist For Irezumi: Questions, Portfolio, And Placement
How to choose a tattoo artist for Irezumi comes down to three checks. Look at healed work, not fresh photos. Confirm the artist plans the background and the body flow before touching the main motif. Ask how sessions are scheduled for a piece that will take months. Irezumi is a large scale style with its own composition rules. An artist who is strong in fine line or realism is not automatically strong here. This guide covers what to look for in a portfolio, what to ask before you book, where on the body Irezumi works best, and the warning signs that should send you somewhere else.
What To Look For In An Irezumi Portfolio
Start with the background. In traditional Japanese work, the background (gakubori) of mist bars, wind, waves, and clouds is what ties a sleeve or back piece into one image. Scroll past the dragon and look at what is behind it. The background should wrap around the motif, follow the shape of the limb, and stop at a clean edge. Check that the water flows one direction and the wind does not fight it. The whole suit is read as one weather system. If every piece in the portfolio is a single creature floating on bare skin, the artist may draw well but has not worked at the scale Irezumi demands.
Next, ask for healed photos, ideally shot in daylight. Fresh tattoos are swollen, shiny, and saturated, and they flatter everyone. Healed photos at six months or a year show whether the lines held, whether the black stayed dense, and whether the colors sat evenly. A serious Irezumi artist keeps healed photos. Large pieces take months, and clients come back often enough to be photographed.
Then check line weight. Traditional outlines (sujibori) are strong and deliberate, heavier on the main motif than on the detail. They are what let a piece read from across a room after twenty years. Thin, sketchy lines are a style choice in some genres and a problem in this one.
Last, count the motifs the artist has actually tattooed. Dragons and koi are everywhere. Look for a hannya, a phoenix with its paulownia, a karajishi with peonies, a tiger in bamboo. An artist who has only done two motifs may not have been asked for the harder subjects yet. If the motif names are new to you, our guide to what each Irezumi motif means covers them.
Questions To Ask A Tattoo Artist Before Booking
A consultation is an interview that runs both ways. The artist is deciding whether to take the project. You are deciding whether to hand over a year of your skin. Here are the questions to ask a tattoo artist before you put down a deposit, in the order that matters.
Do you plan the whole composition before the first session? The answer should be yes, whether that means a full drawing on paper or a layout marked directly on the body. If the plan is to start with the dragon and figure out the rest later, the background will never fit.
Is the main motif stenciled and the background drawn freehand on the body? That is the traditional method, and it tells you the artist can compose on skin, not only on paper.
Can I see healed work in this style? Covered above. If the answer is no, that is your answer.
How many sessions, how long each, and how far apart? You want a range, not a number. A half sleeve and a full back are different projects, and skin needs weeks between sessions to heal.
How do you price large work? Most Irezumi is priced by the hour or by the session, not by the piece. Ask which, and whether drawing time is included.
What is the deposit, and what does it cover? Deposits are usually non-refundable, hold your booking, and cover drawing time. Ask whether it is credited to the last session and what the reschedule window is.
How many design changes are included? One or two rounds is normal. Unlimited revisions usually means the design is being built to please rather than to fit the body.
Which motifs and seasons do you recommend for my story? A strong Irezumi artist will have an opinion. If they tattoo whatever you bring in without comment, they are tracing, not composing.
How will the background end? The edge is called mikiri, and it is a design choice: a soft blurred fade, a cut like pine needles (matsuba mikiri), a dawn-sky gradient (akebono mikiri), or a hard geometric line. Ask which one and why. The answer shows whether the background was planned or improvised.
There is also a short list of what not to ask. Asking an artist to copy another artist's tattoo line for line will end the conversation. Asking for a discount on a large piece, or to start a full sleeve today without a plan, will usually get a polite no and tells the artist the project may not go well.
Where On The Body Irezumi Works Best
Irezumi was built for the back, the arms, and the legs, and the traditional formats follow the body. A few things to weigh when deciding placement.
The back. The largest canvas and the traditional centerpiece of a full suit. A single dragon, koi, or warrior figure with full background. The back takes the most sessions and the most sitting time. It is also the hardest to photograph yourself, so plan on trusting your artist's eye.
The arm. Sleeves come in standard lengths, and the lengths exist for a reason: they hide under a T-shirt or a rolled shirt sleeve. Gobu stops above the elbow (a half sleeve). Shichibu runs to about mid forearm (seven tenths of the arm). Nagasode runs to the wrist. A chest panel that flows into the sleeve is called hikae, and it is designed with the sleeve as one unit (hikae-gobu, hikae-shichibu), so say now if you want the chest eventually. The sleeve is the most common first Irezumi project. It can be seen, hidden, and finished in a reasonable number of sessions.
The leg. Thigh pieces suit the phoenix and the koi because there is room for a long tail or a wave. Legs have their own formats, from a thigh panel to a full leg ending at the ankle, and the same question applies: where does the background stop. Legs are easier to hide for work, and many people start here for that reason.
Smaller placements. A hannya or oni mask on the upper arm, calf, or chest works as a standalone piece (nukibori, with no background) and can later be built into a sleeve. If you think you will want a full sleeve eventually, tell the artist now so the first piece is placed where the composition can grow.
Pain and exposure. Ribs, inner arm, the spine, and the back of the knee are the sore spots. For sleeves, the elbow and the inner elbow (the ditch) are what clients actually ask about, and the armpit if a hikae is in the plan. Hands, neck, and face are visible in every job interview you will ever have. An honest artist will raise both before you do.
How Large Pieces Are Planned And Priced
The process for a serious Irezumi project runs in a fixed order. Knowing it helps you tell a planned studio from an improvised one.
Consultation. Story, motif, season, placement, timeline, and budget. Thirty minutes to an hour. Some studios charge for this and credit it to the deposit.
Composition. The full piece is planned to the body, on paper, on a photo of the limb, or marked directly on the skin. One or two revision rounds.
Outline. The main motif, and often the whole piece, is outlined first. A sleeve may take one or two sittings, a full back several.
Black and shading. Black background and gradient shading (bokashi) go in next, section by section.
Color. Color goes in after the black in that section has healed. On a large piece, outline, black, and color often overlap across different areas.
Healed check. A look at everything once it has settled, with small touch ups if needed. Ask whether that is included and for how long.
Pricing follows that structure. Most artists charge by the hour or by a fixed session rate, and a full sleeve or back is quoted as a range of sessions rather than a single number. A single flat total for a full back by text, with no consultation, has not been planned. What goes into Irezumi pricing, and what a reasonable range looks like for each size, is a big enough question to get its own article.
Red Flags When Choosing A Studio
Most problems announce themselves before the first session. Walk away if you see any of these.
No healed photos anywhere in the portfolio, only fresh work under studio lights.
The artist is willing to start a large piece the same day with no consultation and no plan for the whole area.
Every portfolio piece is a single motif with no background, but the artist says they do full sleeves.
The deposit policy is not written down.
The artist copies a reference image exactly rather than redrawing it to your body.
The artist cannot show you their current tattoo artist license (in NYC it is issued to the individual artist, not the shop, and must be on display), or cannot explain single-use needles and how equipment is sterilized.
Reviews mention long gaps between sessions, unanswered messages, or designs that changed without discussion.
One thing that is not a red flag: a waitlist. The artists who do this well are usually booked out. A few months' wait for a large piece is normal, and honestly a decent sign.
What A First Consultation Looks Like
At Lethe Tattoo, every large Japanese piece starts with a sit-down before anything is booked. We look at reference images together, talk through the story behind the piece, settle on the motif and the season, and map it to the body. We say up front how many sessions we expect and how we schedule them. The composition is settled before the first session, not during it.
Our resident artists have worked in this style for years. Gusti Negara has focused on Japanese and dark art oriental work since 2015. Philipus Murdijanto has worked in neo-oriental and dark art styles since 2001. If you are weighing where to get your first large piece, bring the questions above to the consultation and see how they get answered. Portfolio, process, and booking for our Irezumi tattoo artist in New York are on the service page.
Choosing A Tattoo Artist FAQ
How to tell if a tattoo artist is good?
Look at healed photos, not fresh ones, and look at consistency across the portfolio rather than the single best piece. Lines should be deliberate, black should be solid, and color should sit flat without patchiness. For Irezumi specifically, check that the background flows with the body and that the artist has tattooed more than two or three motifs.
What is the 1/3 rule for tattoos?
The 1/3 rule (one third rule) is a placement guideline borrowed from the rule of thirds. A standalone tattoo should take up about one third or two thirds of the body part it sits on, not exactly half, so it does not cut the limb in two. It is a rule of thumb for standalone pieces. Irezumi sleeves and back pieces cover the whole area by design, so the rule does not apply the same way.
Is $200 an hour a lot for a tattoo artist?
Rates vary by city, by experience, and by style, and we do not publish a benchmark here. In large US cities, established artists doing custom large scale work commonly charge well above entry level shop rates, and session pricing is as common as hourly. The better question is what the hour buys: drawing time, healed quality, and a studio that plans the whole piece.
What not to ask a tattoo artist?
Avoid asking the artist to copy another tattoo exactly, asking for a discount on large work, asking to start a full piece without a plan, or asking them to tattoo a design they have advised against. Each of those tells the artist the project is likely to go badly, and many will decline it.
How do I find a good tattoo artist in my area, with or without Instagram?
How to pick a tattoo artist in your area starts with the style name plus your city, then studio websites that show healed photos and describe their process. If you use Instagram, search the style hashtag and scroll past the fresh photos to the healed ones. If you do not, ask for referrals from anyone wearing large Japanese work, and watch convention and guest spot lists. Many strong Irezumi artists have small social followings because their clients come back for years rather than cycling through.
Should I book the first artist I like?
Not before a consultation. Two or three consultations for a piece that will take a year is reasonable, and good artists expect it. Compare how each one answers the questions above and whether they offer opinions on your design. Pick the one who pushes back when something will not work.
Written by Gusti Negara, resident artist at Lethe Tattoo, tattooing Japanese work since 2015. Last updated October 2026.
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If you’re looking for a tattoo that tells your story, Gusti is available for bookings at Lethe Tattoo NYC. Whether you have a clear vision or need help developing your idea, he’ll work with you to create something meaningful and unique.
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