Archive Note
Born in Japan and tattooing in New York from about 1999, Kiku spent years at Invisible NYC, the Lower East Side custom studio founded by Troy Denning, before co-founding Good Luck NYC in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with the English tattoo artist Henbo Henning in July 2020. He draws large Japanese designs freehand directly onto the body rather than from a fixed stencil, works in bold traditional color, and also makes art prints and merchandise. His shop bio dates his start in Japan to 1996, a date that is self-reported and not independently confirmed; his more than twenty years tattooing in New York as of 2020 are independently attested. He works under the single name Kiku, and no full legal name is publicly documented.