Making Love to the Dead: Ero Guro in Tattoo Culture
Licking blistered eyeballs pushed from sockets, beheaded women wrapped in Shibari ropes, samurai’s sexting with demons, goldfish with legs and children with hammers….Although you may not have heard of the Japanese art movement Ero Guro, we’re sure you’ve seen the effects of it within tattoo and arts culture without even realizing it.
Ero guro nansensu, a wasei-eigo term, is a cultural, artistic and historical movement that is an amalgamation of political philosophies turned aesthetic. Artists, poets, filmmakers, musicians, and of course, tattooists, have blended the concept with their work creating one of the first art movements that spans centuries.
Known for its embrace of the erotic, grotesque, and absurd qualities of life, you may be shocked by the immediate display of gore and lust filled scenes. And although they are meant, in part, to shock, there is also depth to these atrocities…and a reason why they so completely fit with the philosophies and styles of tattooists and collectors alike...
Read the full article on Tattoodo.
