Tattoo artist — NJ / NY
Traditional Japanese designs, executed with modern technique. Full backs, sleeves, and leg pieces down to palm-sized single motifs, every design drawn to the body it goes on.
Hajun Ko (高河俊), who also works and posts under the name juniism, is a tattoo artist working across NJ and NY.
His signature work is irezumi, traditional Japanese tattooing. Most of the practice is large format: full backs, sleeves, chest panels, and leg pieces, with palm-sized single motifs taken on from time to time. Traditional designs, executed with modern technique.
A substantial part of the work is black and grey and colour realism, and a large share of clients come specifically for those. Portraits, religious subjects, and freehand smoke and background work sit alongside the Japanese pieces rather than beneath them.
He took first place in the Model Contest and second in Fake Skin Art at the 4th Korea Tattoo Convention TattooStar Awards in 2023, along with a commendation from the K-Tattooist Association. In 2024 he won both the Tattoo Artwork and Bottle Art categories at Inspire Fly High 2024, and exhibited at Nevermind Art Lounge in Seoul and in the tattoo! group show at Bincan Apgujeong.
Alongside the tattoo practice he is preparing a design reference volume on the Water Margin: the 108 heroes, the motifs attached to each figure, and how those figures are composed on the body in irezumi. In January 2024 he held his first seminar in Seoul on tattoo design and photographing finished work, attended by artists ranging from beginners to previous convention winners. He continues to enter convention competitions in Korea and on the east coast.
Most of the work is large format, and Japanese pieces are the core of it. Black and grey and realism run alongside, at every scale down to palm-sized single motifs.
Competition results, commendations, and exhibitions. Certificates are available on request.
Two design references in preparation. One on the 108 heroes of the Water Margin, one on the construction of Japanese tattoo design.
The 108 heroes, one profile at a time: where the figure comes from, the motifs that have settled onto them, and how each one is composed on the body.
How a Japanese piece is built. Background elements, wave, wind bar and cloud, and the way they carry a composition across the body.
Guest spots and conventions. Books for each date open roughly eight weeks ahead.
Interviews and features, most recent first. Each links out to the original.
Tell me what you want and where it goes. Large Japanese work is booked as a series of sessions, not a single appointment. The books are full through September 1, and I start taking new work again in mid-September.