Ho-o, is the japanese word for phoenix. Contrary to common misconception, Japanese phoenix have nothing to do with European phoenix, you know the bird known as "rising from the ashes". Actually the Japanese version is a conglomeration of other animals and is generally depicted as having "a pheasant's head, a cock's comb, the beak of a swallow and a tortoises's neck with flame like appendages." (Kitamura, Tattoos of the Floating World, pg. 92) " It exists as the male ho and the female o." (pg. 95)
I am grateful that I get to tattoo tons of phoenixes on people so I am always looking to evolve the details of the ones I draw. So I started looking at pictures of the different animals that make up the phoenix.
Keeping these different aspects of the phoenix in mind, I tried to really bring the pheasant out stronger on this one:
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