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Peonies & Tigers

Peonies were imported from China for their medicinal purposes as well as their aesthetic beauty, and the healing associations only made the royal flower all the more auspicious.  In irezumi, peonies are paired with shishi (guardian lions) not only because both hail from China, but also because there's a story that a shishi was cured of illness by eating a peony.  The flower can be paired with tigers, too.  Like the peony, that animal came to Japan from China, and also has medicinal properties.


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Falcons & Hawks

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The Octopus

In modern times, octopus imagery has strong sexual connotations thanks to the ridiculously suggestive use of tentacles in manga, anime, and video games.  The motif is not new, however; one of Japan's most famous and respected artists, Hokusai, pioneered it back in 1814 with the woodblock print The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife , which featured a woman getting hot and heavy with an enormous cephalopod. While such erotically charged associations  have become infamous in the West, this underwater invertebrate means more than tentacle porn in Japan.  Often shown as either cute or comical, the octopus was also the personal physician for Ryujin, the underwater sea dragon, which might explain why, in the past, Japanese doctors were fond of carrying octopus amulets.  And in tattoos, the octopus's ink can make for a clever visual pun.

Wind & Water

Tattoo motifs of wind and water; like those of bamboo and pine, are trans-seasonal.  They are often employed as unifying elements across the background of a tattoo.  Connecting different tattoo elements with an overarching design is a defining element of Japanese tattoos; this is an important difference compared to Western tattoos, which traditionally are isolated images on the skin.  Wind and water motifs make that connection.