San Jose artist uses tattoos to celebrate his Japanese culture

CBS News

06-05-2025

A photo exhibit featuring traditional Japanese tattoo art, called "American Irezumi" is coming to San Francisco's Main Library in October, featuring the work of San Jose tattoo artist Takahiro Kitamura.
Last December, dozens of his clients who have served as his canvas for the past 27-years, came together for the photo shoot in the South Bay.
"There's a lot of emotions here," said Kitamura who is known as Taki. "All I feel is like so much gratitude and respect for like the trust they have given me."
The trust begins inside his tattoo studio, State of Grace Tattoo, in San Jose's Japantown where his clients travel as far away as Sacramento every month to get work done on their tattoo body suits.
Sal Reynaga's tattoo journey with Taki began in 2012, as part of a healing process from his past.
"I served from 2000 and 2004 in the US Marine Corps, and I did most of my time in Iraq," said Reynaga. "Times were tough when getting back. It was hard to adjust to civilian life, and it was real tough getting back to normal."
Today, he describes his tattoos as his suit of armor protecting him from the realities of the world.
"It's my form of wearing my uniform, my suit, my armor suit," said Reynaga. "It represents perseverance, strength, and honor. I wear it for the all the people I served with."
It is responsibility Kitamura takes to heart, when helping his clients tell their stories.
"Sal for example you know has done military service, so the idea of the samurai was very important to him," said Kitamura. "I try to take into account their wishes… and what they are trying to convey and then mix in things, that I've learned from my culture."
Part of that culture stretches back more than 200-years. The original Japanese woodblock prints, that Kitamura uses for many of his tattoos, created by one of Japan's master artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
"He was really known for warrior prints, Suikoden warriors, he lived during the Edo Period," explained Kitamura, who is also wears a tattoo body suit. "I get a lot of joy tattooing Kuniyoshi prints on people. I think they are made to fit the body perfectly."
For Kitamura, he hopes the photo exhibit will not only educate people on the history of Japanese culture, but also help erase some of the stigma of tattoos.
He says, in Japan the tattoo is often associated with the Yakuza and organized crime.
"I think it is getting better over time, but I think they have had a very troublesome history," said Kitamura. "Tattoos were used by the government to mark criminals, so right away there was a stigma."
He believes, tattoos are more accepted here in America.
"If you go through my clients, I have all kinds of people I tattoo a lot of law enforcement, US marshals TSA agents, working police officers, retired police officers, and then regular working people who are in business and finance," said Kitamura.
The "American Irezumi" photo exhibit is to open at the San Francisco Main Library on October 2nd, and will be on display for six months.
Allison Wyckoff, Director of Exhibitions describing the photo display:
"American Irezumi is the name given to what tattoo artist and State of Grace owner Takahiro (Taki) Kitamura spent the better half of his life pursuing. In Japanese, irezumi means 'inserting ink' and is a common word for tattooing. The Japanese tattoo has been instrumental in Kitamura's journey toward understanding his hybrid identity, and he is not alone. Like the artists and sitters featured in the exhibition, Kitamura continues to learn lessons about culture, art, perseverance, humanity and life through tattooing. This journey is taken together with his clients, many of whom are on a similar path of understanding and growth. In his quest to become a traditional Japanese tattooer, Kitamura understands his identity as a Japanese American tattooer, bringing his hybrid identity and experience to his practice through American Irezumi—being comfortable in your skin: your tattooed skin.
The exhibition exemplifies the concept of American Irezumi, capturing hundreds of hours of commitment over a twenty-five-year span, and the community built over that time. Through photographs and interviews with over twenty-four artists in the Bay Area and beyond, hand-carved masks, sculptures, tattoo tools and a hand-painted mural, American Irezumi explores the rich stories of identity, place and cross-cultural embodiment and experience."