The comparison is a category error, which is why it's confusing: irezumi (入れ墨, "inserting ink") is the Japanese tattoo tradition itself — the motifs, the composition grammar, the bodysuit formats. Tebori (手彫り, "hand carving") is a technique used within that tradition: ink driven by hand with a bundle of needles mounted on a rod (nomi), rather than by machine. A suit can be pure tebori, pure machine, or — most commonly today — machine outlines with tebori shading.
In tebori the artist braces the skin with one hand and rhythmically rocks the needle rod with the other. Practitioners prize it for the quality of its bokashi — the soft gradated shading that gives irezumi its depth — because hand pressure can be modulated in ways a machine's fixed stroke cannot. It is slower than machine work, and mastery takes years under a horishi lineage.
Modern Japanese studios overwhelmingly use machines for sujibori — the black structural linework laid down first — because machines hold long, consistent lines. Many then switch to tebori for the shading passes. Neither approach makes a suit more or less 'real' irezumi: the tradition is defined by the imagery and composition, not the tool.
Technique is a conversation to have with the artist you choose; composition is the part you can own beforehand. The format (soushinbori, shichibu, gobusode), the front cut (munewari or donburi), the motifs and the gakubori background determine what the suit is — and all of it can be previewed photorealistically before you commit to either needle.
Reports differ by person; many describe tebori as a duller, more rhythmic sensation than a machine's buzz. Neither is painless — placement matters far more than technique.
Not categorically. Tebori is prized for soft bokashi shading; machines excel at long consistent linework. The dominant modern practice combines both.
No. Irezumi is defined by its imagery, composition rules and formats — machine-made suits following that grammar are fully traditional irezumi.
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