Retrospective

Tell us a bit more about yourself.
I’m originally from Tokyo. Now, I live in Australia and I do tattoos and make art for a living. I’ve been tattooing for almost two years now. Before that I was just doing art—I mainly work with textiles.

What inspires you in your craft?
I’m mainly attracted to a lot of colours in painting, like landscapes. And also how people look in these landscapes—how small they are. But a lot of my tattoo imagery and designs are influenced by fables and mythology. I also really like Ukiyo-e drawings and paintings, which translates to “floating world”. It’s a Japanese style of art that has a lot of animated details, like foxes and frogs.

What’s your favourite folklore or mythical tale?
I don’t know what it’s called in English, but in one of my favourite Japanese folklores, there’s this crane, and she’s a princess from the moon. She gets rescued by this man, and she starts weaving her own feathers as a gift to say “thank you for saving my life”, and then she just flies away (laughs).

What do you like most about folklore?
I like that they’re always kind of incorporating nature, or going back into nature and being very explorative. And then there’s always a lesson that’s learnt at the end. So this whole adventure is really nice.

Between Tokyo and Adelaide, which is your favourite place to live?
Oh, there’s no favourite! I was in Tokyo until I was about 18, and then I also have family in America, so I traveled there and stayed for five years while doing my studies. After that I ended up in Adelaide. My partner Lewis and I lived in Melbourne for a bit, but it was only for six months before the pandemic (laughs). After that we moved back to Adelaide. I definitely want to try and live in Melbourne again, because it’s so busy with art and design.

What’s something that Lewis has taught you in the time that you’ve been together?
I’m always snappy and really impulsive, and he’s very calm and gentle, and he never likes to fight (laughs). I’m more hot-headed, and I get really passionate (laughs). So yeah, what he’s taught me is to always try to keep calm and take things easy.

What advice would you give to your past self?
Oh, that’s so difficult! Maybe just relax, and stop worrying about things that are really insignificant. All the small things, basically (laughs).