Japanese comic art, or manga, possesses a more casual and less traditional style than Irezumi. Often, these images depict characters in action -- laughing, fighting or crying. For a playful Japanese-inspired tattoo, mix traditional Irezumi images with manga images.
For an example of Irezumi comic art, you can get a tattoo of a traditional Japanese story where the main characters are drawn in manga style; however, create the background and color the whole piece in traditional Irezumi style.
Use traditional Irezumi motifs to add an oriental element to any tattoo.
Some examples of merging Eastern and Western elements include: redesigning a Western painting in Irezumi style, such as Botticelli's "Birth of Venus," or splitting an image in two, so that the left side uses a Western style of tattooing and the right side uses the Irezumi style. You can even interpret other tattoo symbolism -- skeletons, skulls, hearts and stars, for example -- through Irezumi style.
Use Irezumi tattoos to tell traditional Japanese folktales. In this way, when people ask you about your tattoo, you can tell them the story behind it.
For an example of Irezumi based on folktales: Tattoo two frogs facing each other, with the backgrounds identical in every way, based on the story, "The Two Frogs," from D. L. Ashliman's Folktexts website. Or, tattoo a woman crying with a bell in front of her from "A Woman and the Bell of Miidera."
While many types of Japanese art contain the contrast of Irezumi tattoos, many others do not, using pale colors that fade into each other. Also, some Japanese art uses medium browns for dark areas, rather than blacks. You can blend these other forms of Japanese art with your next Irezumi tattoo.
To create a Japanese art-inspired tattoo, choose two pieces that you love: one from the Irezumi style and one from traditional Japanese art. Choose the elements you like from both and explain this to your artist. For example, if you like the pale colors of your traditional piece, but the symbolism from the Irezumi piece, ask your artist to blend these two things.