Junji Ito is a Japanese horror manga artist who has written and illustrated popular work such as The Enigma of Amigara Fault, Shiver, Uzumaki and Gyo.
From a young age Ito was inspired by both his older sister's drawing and the work of Kazuo Umezu. He first began elaborating his skills in drawing and writing as a hobby whilst working as a dental technician in the early 90's. In the late 1980's Ito submitted a short story to the Gekkan Halloween competition that won an honorable mention in the Kazuo Umezu Prize, this story was later serialized as Tomie.
Ito was known to have many influences among his work from the likes of Hideshi Hino, Shinichi Koga and even the writings of H.P Lovecraft. Often showing interest in dark and creepy depicts of fiction. In many of his pieces his characters often find themselves to become victims of malevolent and unnatural circumstances for no discernible reason or in some cases to be punished.
One of the more reoccurring themes in Ito's work include body horror, often displaying more graphic visuals with hair-raising carnage. When creating his pieces, Ito like many like-minded creatives starts by planning, sketching and annotating ideas on paper. A lot of his work is done traditionally using tools such as inks, brush pens and fineliners to make his work. When in the making, Ito likes to keep reference imagery above him as he works so the level of detail in his work is accurate.