Adam Trahan “Tenkara-Fisher” decided to join the brotherhood of inked tenkara anglers this week with a beautiful tenkara sakasa kebari on his forearm. I feel honored he’d join in with a similar design to what I got on my arm a couple of weeks ago, it will be fun to see the two tenkara flies on our arms meet one of these days.
The thing about a tattoo is complete commitment. You better be ready to live with your choices for the rest of your life. In having a “Tenkara Tattoo” I have made a commitment to myself, for life. Tenkara stands for many things, not only fishing but a way of looking at life. Bringing things to their most simple form and finding security in this choice. Life is complex enough, making choices as simple and as pure as possible, the tattoo stands for that too. Ultimately, I chose my tattoo design out of my love for fishing. Tenkara being the form of fishing that represents the beginning, practice of and the idea that I can do it the rest of my life. The kebari design, I chose if from Yoshikazu Fujioka who I meet online in 1997 and have enjoyed his aesthetic since then. The Takayama Sakasa Kebari is a drawing that he sent to me for my fly tying box some time ago. When I saw Daniel had the same tattoo on his forearm, I knew that this is the design that I wanted, especially since the movement of the arm makes the tattoo move like the kebari does in the water. It is also a nod of respect to Daniel for having introduced this complete type of fishing (and it’s discipline of simplicity) to myself and to the world. My tattoo is a personal choice in displaying my love for Tenkara, and a show of total and complete commitment of the idea.
– Adam Trahan