Archive Note
Gakkin, whose real name is Kenji Nishigaki, is a Japanese tattoo artist known internationally for large, freehand, mostly black work that draws on Japanese-influenced motifs from nature. Reported to be from Wakayama, he built his early full-body work in Osaka before moving to Kyoto, where his freehand style brought him international attention, and he relocated with his family to Amsterdam in 2016, a move linked to the difficult legal climate for tattooing in Japan at the time, when artists faced prosecution under the Medical Practitioners' Act before the Supreme Court resolved the question in their favor in 2020. He works freehand, designing directly on the body without stencils so the composition follows each client's contours, building his palette around black with occasional red and depicting clouds, rocks, waves, flowers, and creatures in a manner drawn from traditional Japanese painting. He has said black is the most important color in tattooing. He runs a private appointment-based studio in Amsterdam and is documented as a self-directed freehand artist rather than a holder of a formal master-apprentice title.
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