Horimono tattoo In Japan, the custom of tattooing was seen among samurai warriors in the sixteenth century who had their own signature clan tattoos as looters often stripped and mutilated corpses after a battle, which made identification difficult.I visited Nagoya city to do a piece on horimono tattoo for National Geographic. Our fixer Taijji freaked out when he heard who we were going to meet. Read more about this shoot on my photo blog on horimono tattoo.