In Japan, an island nation, waves are symbols long found in a vast array of art, design and craft from around the country, which one author decided to systemize in a three-book series now available for free online.

Myriad ancient wave and ripple examples were carefully compiled and catalogued in black ink by little-known artist Mori Yuzan just over a hundred years ago, detailing different motifs and patterns for other creators and craftspeople to emulate

The sheer variety of waves in these volumes alone is mesmerizing, all fitting into a style yet representing various applications as borders, backgrounds and design details suitable for all sorts of applications..

These Nihonga style (Japanese painting) graphics, typically applied to Japanese washi paper with brushes, can also be applied to anything from everyday ceramics to religious objects, swords, scrolls and wall art.

Perhaps the most famous application of waves remains the Great Wave of Kanagawa, a classic image from the 1800s featuring an enormous wave threatening boats off the coast of the present-day city of Yokohama. While sometimes assumed to be a tsunami, the wave is more likely to be a large rogue wave. As in many of the prints in the series, it depicts the area around Mount Fuji under particular conditions, and the mountain itself appears in the background.

Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan ended a long period of national isolation and became open to imports from the West. In turn, much Japanese art came to Europe and America and quickly gained popularity. The influence of Japanese art on Western culture became known as Japonism. Japanese woodblock prints became a source of inspiration for artists in many genres, particularly the Impressionists. Hokusai was seen as the emblematic Japanese artist and images from his prints and books influenced many different works.

The world’s first live tattoo projection mapping event turned tattoos from static works into performance art, creating dazzling animations from inked body artworks.

Filmed in Lisbon by Oskar & Gaspar, the above video highlights the infinite possibilities of this approach, from filling in details and colors to completing partial tattoos or even animating them in living color.

Like the future tattoos from William Gibson’s book The Peripheral, the result can seem like organic behavior, with faces coming to life and snakes slithering across a body’s surface.

Remarkably, the entire film was made without any post-production – what you see as the viewer of the short film above is exactly what the audience saw on the day of the event. We still may be a ways away from embedded nanobot tattoos, but when we get there, this will be an excellent source of inspiration for the tattoo artists of the future.

Working primarily in bold, black ink, these 13 top tattoo artists working in Kyoto, London, Berlin, Kiev and throughout the United States stand out for geometric and illustrative styles that put the emphasis on line work. Whether they prefer minimalist compositions or cover entire torsos with amazingly intricate shapes, they create living works of art that are literally walking advertisements for their talent.

Thieves of Tower

North Carolina-based tattoo duo Houston and Dagny aka Thieves of Tower have developed a distinctive style, often covering large areas of the body in sweeping landscapes full of stark architectural details. Legs might become a diptych of bold black lines contrasted with clouds, and spires rise from a cityscape stretching across a chest.

Lisa Orth

Frequently working in Los Angeles and traveling around the country, Seattle-based artist Lisa Orth works in a dark, graphic style reminiscent of old woodcut prints and etchings.

Maxime Buchi

Working primarily out of Sang Bleu studio in London, Maxime Buchi (better known as M-X-M) is a modern master of both medieval etching styles and geometric work, often combining them for an intricate and instantly recognizable result.

Thomas Hooper

If you’re looking for amazingly detailed patterns, Thomas Hooper is your guy, tattooing tiny geometric shapes that come together into astonishing tapestries of imagery. Hooper is based in Austin, Texas at Rock of Ages tattoo. s

Grace Neutral

Want to get tattooed the old-fashioned way? Hand-poking has gotten a bad rep because it’s so accessible to amateurs, but there are masters of this ancient craft who choose to work without machines professionally. Check out Grace Neutral, who has gotten incredibly proficient at the process over the years.

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Permanent Markings 13 Tattoo Artists With Bold Black Style

Tattoos and tattooists have made their mark on society – pun intended – but what happens to your neighborhood tattoo parlor when the ink finally runs dry?

Sure, drive-thru is a convenient option for those visiting banks and fast food joints but tattoos? Permanent body decoration is something that shouldn’t be rushed, amiright? Obviously someone didn’t think things through before opening the Outlaw “Drive-In” Tattoo parlor in Tucumcari, New Mexico. As if Route 66 couldn’t get much cheesier and/or sleazier… wonder how many drivers got their kicks engraved all quick & easy-like while Outlaw Tattoo was open? Kudos to Todd Longwood of A Love Of Two Brains for chancing upon this remarkable discovery in late 2013.

Jersey Sore

It’s not impossible the infamous Snooki visited this abandoned tattoo parlor in Browns Mills, New Jersey before it bit the proverbial biscuit – one fervently hopes they sterilized the equipment immediately afterwards, ideally from orbit.

OOZ Next?

Flickr user lungstruck snapped the above closed tattoo parlor in Kent, Ohio on March 6th of 2009. Seems even inebriated college students couldn’t keep this colorful operation afloat. Then again, calling your tattoo studio “TATTOOZ” may have been unwise – who wants tattoos that ooze from a place called TATTOOZ? Besides Xzibit, that is.

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Red Ink 10 Closed Abandoned Tattoo Parlors Studios Shops

Modified inline skates holding pots of black pigment allow this artist to create her huge works (up to 40 feet or more) while rolling around the room, with results that look remarkably like smaller-scale works of hand-drawn calligraphy.

A student at the California College of art, Tian Haisu has dubbed her approach Landskating. She notes that her “whole body is involved” in this unusual process, filling her creations with a unique kind of “power, speed and rhythm.”

Her works feature landscapes, plants and architecture, all created by pressing down on giant unrolled sheets of paper deployed after she has sketched out and thought through these larger compositions on small sheets.

As with any artistic approach, it took the artist time to learn the medium, executing with her feet rather than her hands in a way that both liberates the creative process but also involves complexities and stylistic impacts that are not always easy to predict or control.