Learn Tattooing in Yokohama / Tokyo

Honest level: Apprentice -> Horishi — ask the school exactly how far that goes in the time you have.

NTA Tattoo Artist Curriculum (beginner to advanced)

NTA is an incorporated tattoo school with campuses in Tokyo, Osaka and Okinawa where active professional artists teach a step-by-step curriculum covering machine and needle technique, design sense, and lectures on tattoo culture and history. After completing the program, students receive introductions to partner studios and continued online access. It is the open-enrolment route in Japan, since traditional irezumi (horishi) training is a private master-led apprenticeship that is not sold as a fixed program.

Hands-on, master-taught study of tattooing at the source in Japan, with technique, culture and history and a path into a working studio, rather than a short taster.

Tuition not published on the English-facing pages; confirm directly with the school.

Masters & lineage

• Horiyoshi III (tebori master)

Why Japan Tattoo Academy (NTA / Nihon Tattoo Academy)

NTA is a registered general incorporated association (一般社団法人日本タトゥーアカデミー) running a structured beginner-to-advanced curriculum taught by working Japanese tattoo artists, covering not just technique but design sense plus tattoo culture, history and ethics, with post-graduation support such as partner-studio introductions — and it is named among Japan's top recommended tattoo schools by the industry portal Tattoo Japan.

Schools in Yokohama / Tokyo

Checked by hand against each school's own course pages. No school paid to be listed.

• Japan Tattoo Academy (NTA / Nihon Tattoo Academy)
  NTA Tattoo Artist Curriculum (beginner to advanced)
  NTA is an incorporated tattoo school with campuses in Tokyo, Osaka and Okinawa where active professional artists teach a step-by-step curriculum covering machine and needle technique, design sense, an
  https://tattooacademy.jp/
• Horiyoshi III lineage / Yokohama Tattoo Museum
  Horishi apprenticeship under the Horiyoshi III lineage (tebori)
  The Yokohama Tattoo Museum is a private archive and studio founded in 2000 by irezumi master Horiyoshi III, whose lineage transmits full-body Japanese tattooing and the hand-tattooing tebori technique through traditional horishi apprenticeship rather than open enrolment.
  https://www.tattooinjapan.com/horiyoshi-iii/
• traditional horishi apprenticeships (Tokyo irezumi ateliers)

The credential

Completed studio apprenticeship + bloodborne-pathogen / hygiene certification (lineage title in traditional schools) · Certifying body: — (master-led apprenticeship; bloodborne-pathogen certification required to practice)

A recognised qualification an outside body stands behind is not the same as a certificate a school prints itself. We name which it is — you should ask the school the same.

Also for Tattooing

What I check before I send you anywhere

I'm Arnaud. I cook for a living, and I've spent fifteen years on the water — so I know the difference between a real school and a good-looking website. I built the Atlas because I got tired of the second kind. Here is what a place has to clear before it goes on here, and what I'll tell you straight when it doesn't.

• The craft is actually alive there. A working scene, with people who do this every day — not a demo put on for visitors.
• There's a real teacher behind it. Named, still practising, and certified where the craft has certificates.
• The credential is what it claims to be. A state diploma and a certificate a school prints itself are not the same thing. I check which, and I say which.
• I tell you how sure I am. Most pages here are verified by hand. A few say "still checking" — I'd rather admit that than pretend.
• Nobody pays to be here. No commission, no selling the trip. The order on this map is the strength of the community, never the size of the wallet.
• If I wouldn't send a friend, it isn't on the map.