Inferno of Torture is a 1969 Japanese film directed by Teruo Ishii. The movie is set in the nineteenth century in Japan where there is a high demand for tattooed geisha. The film focuses on the story of two highly skilled tattoo masters, one of whom, named Horihide, is renowned for his exquisite tattoos of beautiful women. The demand for his tattoos is so high that he has to hire young women to be trained as geisha and then tattoo them to meet the demand of his clients.
One of his trainees, Otsuya, is particularly stunning and becomes the most popular geisha in the city, coveted by both Japanese and European clients. However, her success breeds envy, and soon she faces threats from rival geishas and stampedes of clients. Meanwhile, Horihide's rival, a brutish tattoo artist named Yoshide, creates grotesque and violent tattoos, causing him to be ostracized from the respectable society of tattoo artists.
The film is known for its depiction of graphic violence and eroticism. The tattooing scenes are particularly intricate and gruesome, with detailed close-ups of the needles piercing the skin. Inferno of Torture explores the dichotomy between beauty and brutality, and ultimately reveals the price of pursuing perfection in art and eroticism.