This leg sleeve is based on a Kuniyoshi print depicting sea creatures from the sea kingdom  attacking a pearl diver who has stolen a magical pearl  .more photos to follow 

    
  
 
This is in progress, I love doing worked based on these old prints , which all Japanese tattooing stems from .In Japanese mythology, the tide jewels– individually, the kanju (干珠?, lit. “(tide-)ebbing jewel”) and manju (満珠?, lit. “(tide-)flowing jewel”)– were magical gems that the Sea God used to control the tides. Classical Japanese history texts record an ancient myth that the ocean kami Watatsumi 海神 “sea god” or Ryūjin 龍神 “dragon god” presented the kanju and manju to his demigod son-in-law Hoori, and a later legend that Empress Jingū used the tide jewels to conquer Korea. Tide jewels interrelate Japanese dragons and wani sea-monsters, Indonesian mythology, the nyoi-ju 如意珠 “cintamani; wish-fulfilling jewel” in Japanese Buddhism.