For as long as I've been collecting tattoos, they've all been done more or less the same way. Some artists used a coil machine while others used a rotary, some had a heavier hand than others, but every tattoo on my body was done in more or less the exact same way. 

Well, they were all the same until a couple of weeks ago.

That was when I got a text from veteran tattooer (and recent friend) Chris Winn to tell me that his buddy from Japan, Horishige, was in town and still had a slot open to tattoo me if I wanted it. I didn't know much about Horishige, but I knew he was an old school tattoo master who'd been specializing in the art of Tebori — a highly artistic hand-poked traditional Japanese method dating back roughly 12,000 years — for longer than I've been alive. I also knew Horishige doesn't visit the States too often, so I figured I should jump on the opportunity to get inked by him while he's tattooing a few minutes away from my apartment.

As I would with any tattoo, I showed Horishige the spot on my leg I wanted tattooed and asked him what he thought would fit best there. The tattoo master believed a Kitsune (Japanese fox) mask would fit best just below my kneecap, so I agreed and asked him a few questions while he drew it up.

How did you first get interested in tattooing?

When I was 18, I was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I got my first tattoo because I was into '80s and '90s thrash metal and all of the rock stars were getting tattooed. I knew that Japanese tattooing could be really beautiful with the big tattoos, and then I went back to Japan and got tattooed by Horitoku — he's my master now. Horitoku II did by back piece, so while I'm getting tattooed, I decided to get an apprenticeship from Horitoku II, but Horitoku II wanted me to be an apprentice of Horitoku, so I became an apprentice of Horitoku. Then my tattoo art stuck.

When you started tattooing, Yakuza were among the only Japanese people getting tattooed. How has tattooing in Japan changed since then?

It's really changing in Japan now. The Yakuza people try to not get tattooed anymore. Now, my client is almost all normal people. It's very good for us.

What's the difference between Japanese tattooing and American tattooing in your eyes?

I think in American traditional and Japanese traditional, the designs are very different, but the way you're tattooing is very similar. It's a solid fat line and bright solid colors. It's really really close as a style. It's simple, and you can see what the tattoo is from far away. That new school thing like color portraits, I don't know. I don't do that.

If you've ever wondered what Tebori feels like, it's still painful, but it's about as different from a regular tattoo as you can get. Rather than the grinding pain of a machine tattoo, you feel each individual dot of the Tebori needle. Thankfully, a master like Horishige has an exceptionally smooth hand as he repeatedly pierces your skin with a long pencil-like stick at a rate of about five pokes per second. Each one feels like a tiny bug bite, with some more painful than others (just like any other tattoo).

The overall process is definitely slower than a regular tattoo (my small Kitsune mask took just over an hour), but it's not quite as annoying because you get miniature breaks every few seconds as the artist has to dip his tool back into the ink. Unlike most tattoo machines, your skin doesn't feel quite as raw by the time the tattoo master is ready to get back to stabbing you, so going back over a spot a second time isn't nearly as bad as one would expect. Of course, I don't usually start to complain about tattoo pain until hour three or four (except when I got the inside of my ankle done, that was the worst), so the human body probably hits its limit at some point for Tebori tattooing as well.

For any tattoo collector, I'd recommend getting at least one small Tebori piece. It's an experience unlike anything you've ever had before, and those who do it well can do some truly incredible artwork with it. As a bonus, the reduced skin trauma meant that my ink was just about entirely healed within a week. Whether it'll hold up longer than some of my other pieces remains to be seen (particularly considering that much of it is white or yellow), but the memory of my first Tebori tattoo will last forever.

Now I just have to get brave enough to try out a Polynesian Tatau.