Horitomo

Kazuaki Kitamura, who tattoos as Horitomo, is originally from the Kansai area of Japan. He began tattooing in Nagoya and then worked in Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama. He met Takahiro Kitamura in 1999 at the Tokyo Tattoo Convention and they became fast friends. In 2007 he immigrated to the United States to work at State of Grace. Since then, he has been an integral part of State of Grace and his virtuosity and commanding knowledge of Japanese tradition have served to inspire the whole shop.

He has been featured in the Perseverance and Living Tattoo Traditions exhibitions as well as publishing multiple volumes of his art: Monmon Cats Vol. 1 and 2, Immovable, Immovable Anew, and the recent Horitomo Shitaeshū on Hardy Marks Publications. He has also done extensive artwork for multiple Yakuza games for Sega and has signature professional ink color sets with Solid Ink.