Taro Bonten

Tarou Bonten (born Kiyomi Ishii) was a mangaka, painter, designer, and internationally famous tattoo artist. At the start of his career, he did mostly shoujo manga, but after quitting and traveling around Japan on his own for a number of years—citing his overwork and lack of interest in shoujo manga—he returned to the medium to create adult works of horror, violent samurai stories, and eroticism. He quit drawing manga once and for all after the mid 1970s and dedicated himself only to tattooing for the rest of his life.