Ade vol.1

This book is awesome. It is called Ade vol. 1 and is a collection of tattoo sketch and design work by Ade, who works at Nine, in Brighton UK. Ade has a signature style - he pulls from the classic ukiyo-e artists, particularly Hokusai, and is similarly influenced by contemporary Japanese tebori master Horiyoshi III. This book includes some fantastic illustrations. Beautiful renditions of koi, Japanese demons, oni, dragons, snakes, lotus, chrysanthemums, tigers, hannya, fox, namakubi (severed heads) skulls, cherry blossoms, Buddist gods, kingyo (Japanese goldfish) and other classic Japanese imagery. The first 2/3 of the book are monochrome sketches, and the last 1/3 is watercolor paintings and full color examples of his tattoo work featuring designs included in the book. It is softcover, 8" x 11.5" and 160 pages with nice, big illustrations on one side. All in all a great, no nonsense reference book.