Anthony Bourdain’s Wandering Spirit
It’s a February morning in Brooklyn, and Anthony Bourdain is lying on his side on a tatami mat, being poked in the arm by a very pointy stick. There’s a glass of whisky nearby, from which Bourdain periodically sips to help dull the pain, while cameras capture every moment. The man doing the poking is Japanese-born tattoo artist Takashi Matsuba, who owns the studio that Bourdain and his crew have taken over for an episode of the Balvenie’s Raw Craft.
The web series, which premiered in 2015 and begins its third season this month, profiles a traditional stick-and-poke method. Matsuba makes his own ink and uses a tool called a which he crafts by hand.
