Story behind the Picture

Hey Guys, I'm new to this board,

would be great if you could help me out with this:
I'm planing to get a half-sleeve tattoo in the classical japanese style because i really love them and I love Japan.
The problem is, that I found this picture:
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/5371/491299601246.jp...

on the internet some time ago and now i don't remember WHERE.
So if anyone knows it or even better the Story/Myth behind it I would really appreciate it, because the motive itself is great but I'm not really comfortable with getting inked a picture without knowing its background/story/meaning

That's just a random picture of a dragon. Theres no story behind it. It looks like it was drawn by a japanese artist for a flash collection or magazine.

Hi, I am a tattoo artist from england.

The picture you have could be interperated in many different ways, for example it could be Watatsumi º£Éñ which is one of the ancient 3 water gods.

If you want a tattoo that could have more of a meaning
maybe include a white feathered arrow? That would relate it to the Hakone Kuzury¨± legend. It's all up to you.

Research into dragon folklore and find a story that you like and go from there.

Make sure that if you want it be 100% aunthentic, your Japanese dragon should have only 3 claws. 4 claws are reserved for chinese and 5 claws are Imperial chinese dragons.
The Japanese believed that the further a dragon went from japan the more toes he would grow, meaning that if he went too far away it would not be able to walk properly!

If you need more help just ask :)

Thanks for your help so far!

well I began to read myself into the dragon folklore..

Are you sure that it's a dragon?
and the "guy" on the picture didn't look like the typical japanese dragon to me - or reminded me more of a human-deamon-mixture like they are quite common in japanese folklore.
Though I was searching for a story that fits an old guy on a snakebody or a snake-deamon .. something like that.

i already tried to ask some japanese guys but they didn't answer my question so far:(