This website has been a free resource on the internet for nearly three years now. However, due to the financial and time demands of website hosting and maintenance, the burgeoning amount of information my research is producing, the need to publish in hard format to gain academic credibility and the ever-increasing plagiarism of the site's contents, this site is no longer being updated.

I also feel much of the information relating to horimono on the internet now is either false, nonsense, misguided or simply invented as the sales pitch for commercial products. A Google search for 'japanese tattoos' produces a sample of the junk out there. Also the plagiarism and reproduction of the contents of this site, often by companies, corporations and other for-profit organisations, is getting quite annoying now. Therefore I feel that the contents of this site and my research is better off in book format; people are more likely to respect something they've had to have spent their hard-earned cash on.

The Horimono: The Japanese Tattoo book is currently about 90% complete and is due to be published by Keibunsha in Winter 2003. I am writing on a part-time, amateur basis and once my studies are completed I will be able to write full-time. Most of the text is complete and all that remains is to compile the plates and then proof-read and format the manuscript.

The book will contain:

- Reproductions of all the images that were on this site

- All the original text of this website, plus new research from the last year

- Full citations and references for all the text, making it an academic reference

- Full glossary and appendices for horimono terminology and Japanese culture

- All the deliberate mistakes on this website corrected

- Approximately 50% more information than what was ever on this site

You will also be able to see photos of work by a number of current traditional Japanese tattoo artists and their studio details, ukiyoe prints and learn a little more about the author of this site.

The book will hopefully a) financially secure my academic future in the field of horimono, b) pay for me to carry out more detailed and rigorous research, such as visiting tattoo artists, libraries and private collections and c) will deter further plagiarism of my work.

Publicity, publication dates and ordering information will be on both this and the Keibunsha website. The book preview is now online.