As a preface, I have to disclose that I am hyper critical about most of my work, almost upon completion, I see things I wish I could have changed or adjusted. Sometimes very subtle, and a lot of times it's very apparent. Of course my clients are happy and enjoy the work, there isn't anything wrong with it, just maybe If I could do it again, I would change my approach. That's why when people ask if I would do another panel I usually say yes. That being said, I am very proud of this tattoo.

This piece is on a good client of mine who always gets such fun pieces. (Dustin, you’re a real one) I had an idea one night and had not seen it drawn up, yet alone as a tattoo, though I am sure other people had made the association between Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto’s last name and Junji-Ito’s prolific graphic novel, Uzumaki.

Uzumaki just means spiral. The ominous symbol is found in Junji’s novel and also happens to be the last name of Naruto’s (from the anime) mother, Kushina Uzumaki. A narutomaki is a cured fish product found in ramen that represents actual whirlpools found in the naruto strait found between Awaji Island and Shikoku. And those narutomaki are found in a lot of ramen, which is Naruto Uzumaki’s favorite dish.

Keeping up? Good.

It wasn't that clever, it was super obvious. Why not mash up two huge influences together into a single tattoo. Uzumaki by Junji-Ito was my introduction to that style of Japanese horror, and Naruto the anime, is one of the biggest manga/anime of all time. I wasn’t about to announce this via social media because I wanted to do the tattoo first, and I have a relationship with a few clients that are open minded and huge anime nerds like I am.

Would I do this tattoo again? No, I drew this up for Dustin, this isn't a found image, or from some huge production house shotgunned across social media and publication. It was a fun idea between two fans of a certain story about a town doomed by an ominous symbol, and a ramen loving ninja just trying to find his path in life.