Product Description

This book is an appraisal of an ancient art form that until recently remained hidden in the cultural backwaters of our society.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #302685 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 392 pages

Customer Reviews

Dated, very dated.
I purchased this book several months ago, I can't remember too well what I was expecting, maybe inspiration for a tattoo, find a few ideas or styles I liked. I found nothing I liked but that's beside the point.

Since the Amazon synopsis doesn't illuminate what this book contains very well I will give you a brief summary. The book contains first, the history of tattooing, how it has evolved into what we know today. Various sections are also devoted to different tattooing locations around the world (China, Russia, Japan, Cuba, Santos, Hong Kong, Polynesia, England). There is also a section on How to get a good Tattoo and "Old School" Tattooing.

Now, how do these sections rank up? This history of tattooing is small, eight pages at the most. It's interesting, but don't buy this book if you really want to learn about tattoo history.

The "On the Road" sections are terrible. What you take away from reading them is to never get a tattoo in any of these locations. All the tattoos featured in this section (save Japan) are terrible. Very very bad, these pictures are accompanied by pictures of prison style tattoo machines and dirty studios.

How to get a Good Tattoo. Let me sum up the first two paragraphs for you, don't smoke and don't move around. And this "section" though I use the term loosely is barely a page long. Other such advice dished out is to stand in front of a mirror naked and "visualize" the tattoo on yourself".

It's not all bad news though folks! The book does deliver. PICTURES. What we all came here for, lots and lots of photos. Pictures of tattoos and studios, more pictures of studios than you would perhaps like to look at.

Here's where my main problem with this book lies though, a book about tattoos, has photographs of tattoos in but all that photos in this book are terribly dated. I mean really dated. The notes state this book was published first in 2004. This has to be a joke, there is not one photograph in here taken in the last ten years. Everything looks pre-95. Though the tattoos do look 'good', done with skill at the time, by modern standards they look average, just average. Did I mention they also look dated, so very dated?

Why buy this book, well there are no reasons to. You'd like to learn the history of tattoos, this book isn't for you. You'd like to learn about different tattoos and styles from around the globe. Not for you. Don't buy this book for inspiration because everything in this book you can find better examples of at your local studio in the flash book.

This book, doesn't know what it's trying to be, its got some terrible photos in (most notably the On the Road chapter, I am serious, some of these look like they have been drawn on with biro, a week ago and not been washed off. The book also contains a lot of filler, there is a whole chapter about head tattoos, what's next, arm tattoos, leg tattoos? Everything in this book can be found out online. Do yourself a favor, save your money, buy something else.

Fantastic book - pictures are brilliant
I would deffinately recommend this book to anyone. Although there isn't huge quantities of writing, their are some wonderful pictures which say so much themselves. The writing that is there gives you all you need to know if you just want a baseline understanding and abit of history. Im doing A-level art and got this book for my exam piece and have found it very useful and inspiring.

A good all rounder book...
This book is better than most for an all round insight into tattoos. The glossy photos are of an ok standard, and this would be my only criticism. There are occasional photo's of some great artists work, but on the whole the tattoos aren't that good. A huge book though and the best i've seen covering so many different varietys of styles.