Welcome to my newest Visual Kei project; Inked-tober. I think most people know some variation of the project, but I will briefly explain my version for this month. I’ve been researching tattoos for the better part of a year in hopes of getting one in the future. This separate research bleed into my love of Visual Kei since many bandmen have their own tattoos, and looking back a few of them and their tattoos influenced me in my decision to get one myself.
So, I’ve put together a small selection of bandmen with distinct ink to feature. The first being a regular to my blog since starting up, but I only realized in the last few months that they had an inked member; nurié. The specific bandmember whose ink I’d like to talk about is their vocalist, Ryutaro. On August 20th 2020, he posted an Instagram story showing off his right arm sleeve tattoo!
It was a little difficult to figure out which arm, but at least based of MV’s and taking into account mirroring and his dominant hand, it’s his right arm. While this first image is a bit washed out, thanks to the filter, it’s very clear that Ryutaro has some dense ink. In the screenshot, the featured image, you can see that his forearm is a fractal pattern tattoo. It’s really well packed on the skin with a lot of care taken to the texture, hence why it appears a bit uneven in certain angles and degrees. At the elbow, it appears that he incorporated an industrial design, that I can’t fully distinguish.
It also shows that he a starkly different design on his upper arm. As far as I’m aware, even from his previous band, there’s no clear images of his upper arm. From snapshots and me zooming in the pattern is much more natural and flowing. It appears to be a more natural tebori inspired piece. It’s really rare for a sleeve to feature two different non-connected styles, so I’d really love to see it in full for myself!
So, Ryutaro’s full sleeve is a bit of a mystery. A very interesting one, but still a mystery. It’s also just nice to see that a ‘younger’ bandman is keeping the inked image alive in Visual Kei. Even if so far nurié’s costumes haven’t allowed us to get a better look.
Below, is their newest release Tenki ni hoeru or Howling in fine weather, with Ryutaro’s distinct vocals present and featuring him on guitar too! With that I’ll see you in next week’s Inked-tober post!
P.S. Re-watching this particular music video makes me lose my mind every time. They are so intentionally hiding Ryutaro’s tattoos even with the white shirt! Just let me see it already!
**Note: I’m not a tattoo nor art expert. This series of blogs is just my opinions and just for fun!**
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