Cats Tattooing Each Other In Surreal Japanese Ink Wash Paintings

A Japanese tattoo artist based in California named Kazuaki Horitomo has a fascination for both cats and tattoos. Therefore, he decided to put these two things together by creating series of surreal and fun illustrations which depict cats giving tattoos to other cats. The project, called Monmon Cats, contains paintings which show cats with lots of extensive body art on them. In other words, the cats have lots of tattoos that cover most of their torso and back. Their heads are the only parts with no tattoos on them. This is kind of like a “bodysuit” style of tattooing which Horitomo is giving to the cats in his paintings.

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Horitomo has 20 years of experience as a tattoo artist and is knowledgeable in “tebori,” which is a Japanese practice where the artist uses their hand to apply body art to a person. A lot of his illustrations reflect cats giving other cats body art with their hands. To top it all off, his paintings look like they were done a while ago because he uses an ink wash painting style that is reflective of the ancient painting styles.

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And here’s the real deal – Horitomo’s Monmon Cats as tattoos

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monmoncats.com

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