Today’s Pic: Traditional Japanese Tattoos

One of Japan’s top tattoo artists creates traditional Japanese art on a woman’s back during a cultural performance for the press in Tokyo. The presentation aimed to introduce the historical and cultural underpinnings of tattoo art.

We never have a shortage of great pics on the NG.com site, but this new gallery of Tattoos, Piercings, and Scarification has some truly amazing ones to choose from, and nearly all of them look painful.

Photograph by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images