Horu in Japanese means 'to carve', or 'dig', or 'tattoo'. The same meaning as the verb to carve as in carving woodblocks. Thus Hori comes before both the names of professional tattooers and traditional woodblock carvers...like Horiyoshi III of Yokohama, one of the great living tattoers of Japan. Western artists take on the Japanese names, too, or are given them by masters. Chris Trevino is known as Horimana. Ed Hardy used the name O-nami, or 'Great Wave', the name of a Sumo wrestler in a famous Zen parable.
