Jack (Horimouja) Mosher – My back-piece done in 2 months
The first time I visited a tattoo convention was the Art Tattoo Show of Montreal in 2007. I was fascinated; I passed hours looking at everything and I spent all the money I had to buy 2 books by Horimouja:
- 100 Japanese Tattoo Designs part II
- Bloody Japanese Prints
These books cost me 300$ which was a lot for someone working part-time at the minimum wage as a wrapper in a supermarket. I spent days studying and observing every drawing, every line. I decided there and then that one day I was going to get tattooed by Jack Mosher.
Fast-forward to 2009; I made an appointment to get tattooed at Body Armor Tattoo, his studio in Kalamazoo (MI). It was a 12-hour drive to get there. I went with my girlfriend, Virginie and my childhood friend, Patrick. A great road trip to get tattooed by one of my idols! I was exited and nervous.
I wanted a tiger on my ribs with a little rabbit at the bottom. When I arrived to my appointment, I was surprised to see that he didn’t prepare a drawing. He explained to me that he always did his design free hand. He then took a sharpie and started to draw directly on my skin. I was fascinated to see him working without a stencil! I knew his talent for drawing, so I wasn’t stressed at all about the result, I trusted his skills. I got tattooed 2 days straight and the result was better than what I had expected.
I really appreciated my time spent in Michigan. Watching Jack work and talking with him made me realize how much I could learn from him. I decided to let him do my back-piece, the biggest canvas on the body.
By chance Jack told me he was moving to Erie in Pennsylvania which was great because that meant he was living closer to me (8-hour drive instead of 12)! We scheduled a meeting to start the back-piece. I was hesitant between getting a back-piece of Taira no Tomomori, the valorous samurai, or Shuten Doji, king of the demons. I let Jack choose and he decided to go with Shuten Doji because it’s a less common subject.
Thanks to Shuko, Jack’s Japanese wife, he managed to incorporate multiple elements of the classic story of Shuten Doji. On top of that, my back-piece has a lot of hidden symbols:
- In the axe, we can read the kanjis 亡者, which are pronounced ‘’Mouja’’. Like in Jack Hori-mouja, which actually means dead alive or zombie. I now have his signature in my tattoo.
- He is wearing tiger skins on his shoulder, which references the traditional Japanese-time system. Shuten Doji would come out at the hour of the tiger (between 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM) to go hunting for his preys.
- Some jewelry has a fleur-de-lys design, which references my Quebec origins.
We had 3 months to finish my back-piece since Jack was moving to California because he had been offered a job at High Voltage (Kat Von D’s tattoo parlor). Therefore, with a lot of motivation, of sweat, and blood, we managed to finish my back-piece in 2 months in a half, even though there was an 8-hour drive between Jack and I.
Each week, I would leave Sunday at 6:00 PM after my shift in a tattoo parlor to drive to Erie, PA. I would get tattooed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I would leave Wednesday night and make it back Thursday in time for my shift. More than 60 hours of tattooing has gone inside this tattoo in just a couple of weeks.
For those wondering why I didn’t take a commercial flight to go and see him, I simply didn’t have the money for plane tickets. I preferred putting my money in my tattoo and my learning than in a comfy plane seat.
On top of getting tattooed, I spend a lot of time drawing and talking with Jack. He has one of the largest book collections I have ever seen! I spent hours looking at his books, he even gave me a book! We would spend nights drawing; he would explain different art concepts and show me different techniques. All those hours spent with him are worth so much and I’m truly grateful to have had such an opportunity.
