The Tattoo Writer
28 September - 29 October 2024
The tattoo writer
Akimitsu Takagi/ Pascal Bagot
Curated by Panagiotis Pappas
“The Tattoo Writer” is a new art exhibition at 3Portes Gallery, organized by the Photometria International Photography Festival 16th Edition, featuring the works of Akimitsu Takagi. The exhibition launches in Ioannina on September 28th and will be available for visitors to explore until October 29th, 2024.
Curated by Panagiotis Pappas
The Tattoo Writer is a research project led by French journalist Pascal Bagot, a specialist in tattooing in Japan, based on the photographs of Akimitsu Takagi.
Akimitsu Takagi (1920-1995) was one of the greatest Japanese crime writers of the 20th century. Crazy about tattoos, he documented the underground scene of tattooists and tattooed people in Tokyo in the 1950s and 1960s.
Forgotten in the novelist’s library and unknown until their discovery in 2017, these photographs establish him as one of the most important witnesses to the history of tattooing in 20th-century Japan.
The exhibition of Akimitsu Takagi’s images is presented using a selection of silver prints made from the original negatives, available for sale at the Gallery.
The Tattoo Writer is also a book (published in 2022, and reprinted in 2023) that brings together more than 130 of these photographs. The book of Akimitsu Takagi's photographs documenting the tattoo scene in Tokyo in the 1950s. 200 pages, 134 photographs, bi-lingual English/French, three texts (Akiko Takagi, Gérald Peloux, Pascal Bagot), format 7,7 x 10 in. (19,5 x 24,5cm). 2nd edition. Available at the Gallery.
Meeting with 'Pilou', printer of Akimitsu Takagi's photographs