From Tattoos to NFTs with Ichi Hatano The 21st Century Creative

Welcome to Episode 9 of the Creative Disruption season of The 21st Century Creative, where we are hearing stories of creatives around the world who came up with a creative response to the challenges of the pandemic.



This week we are off to Tokyo, to meet Ichi Hatano, a wonderful artist whose work has deep roots in the traditional arts of Japan.



When his busy tattoo studio was closed by Covid restrictions, he turned to digital art and exhibited his work at CrypTOKYO, Japan’s very first NFT art show, which attracted national press and television coverage.



In this interview Ichi tells me about his journey as an artist and the new creative and commercial opportunities he is discovering in the world of digital art.







In the first part of the show, I look back at the interviews in the CREATIVE DISRUPTION season and identify a key factor that made creative reinvention easier for some creators than others – and what you and I can learn from their example.



Ichi Hatano



Ichi Hatano has worked as a tattoo artist since 1998 and also produces Suiboku-ga, a type of traditional ink wash painting.



In late 2019 just before the pandemic hit, Ichi was employing 3 more tattooists plus a full time studio manager, and they were fully booked 6 days a week, with the majority of their business coming from overseas tourists, who wanted a very special souvenir of their trip to Japan.



Then along came the pandemic, and the restrictions meant that not only was his tattoo studio closed for many months, but foreign tourists were barred from entering the country.







So Ichi’s business shrank from 6 days a week to only 1 or 2 clients a month. Which meant he had a lot of time on his hands, and he came up with 3 very different creative projects in response to his changed circumstances.



The first one was a beautiful book of his Suibokuga paintings, called Ichi Hatano’s Dragons, which he crowdfunded on Kickstarter.



The second project is an ongoing DIY renovation project at a traditional house in the Japanese countryside, which he plans to turn into a gallery.



And the third was his entry into the world of Crypto Art and NFTs.



Ichi took part in CrypTOKYO, Japan’s very first in-person NFT art show, exhibiting and selling his digital artwork alongside notable Japanese artists and international icons including Beeple, and Maxim from The Prodigy.



It’s a fascinating conversation where a centuries-old artistic tradition meets the latest trends in the 21st century creative economy.



You can learn more about Ichi’s art – including his digital art and his book at his website, IchiHatano.com and his Instagram @ichi_hatano

Ichi Hatano interview transcript

MARK: Ichi, how did you become an artist?

ICHI: I didn’t have any official art training. I left school at 15 because it was difficult being a group environment. I like studying by myself. I was drawing a lot, and studying art by myself.

MARK: Huh.

ICHI: Yeah.

MARK: What artist inspired you the most?

ICHI: I like Ukiyo-e artists from the late Edo period, which is the 19th century. Ukiyo-e are Japanese woodblock prints. My favorite artists are Keisai Eisen, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, this kind of era artist.

MARK: I think a lot of listeners will know Hokusai’s ‘Wave off Kanagawa’.

ICHI: Yeah. Exactly.

MARK: That’s maybe a really, really famous image. But there’s an awful lot of other Ukiyo-e images and artists.

Why did you become a tattoo artist?

ICHI: It’s hard to say why you like something. If you like it, you like it!

MARK: That’s true.

ICHI: I got my first tattoo at 20 years old.

MARK: Oh, really?