New York City is the birthplace of the electric tattoo machine, which has influenced modern tattooing worldwide, helping to define technical and artistic values intrinsic to the art form. After a 35-year ban, tattooing was re-legalized in the city in 1997; century-old values that were once shrouded in secrecy are now challenged by rapid growth and heavy demand. Loaded with color photos and commentary from artists throughout the city, this book is a fascinating glimpse into New Yorks unique tattoo culture, past and present.

Tattoo Histories is an edited volume which analyses and discusses the relevance of tattooing in the socio-cultural construction of bodies, boundaries, and identities, among both individuals and groups. Its interdisciplinary approach facilitates historical as well as contemporary perspectives. Rather than presenting a universal, essentialized history of tattooing, the volume’s objective is to focus on the entangled and transcultural histories, narratives, and practices related to tattoos. Contributions stem from various fields, including Archaeology, Art History, Classics, History, Linguistics, Media and Literary Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and Sociology. They advance the current endeavour on the part of tattoo scholars to challenge Eurocentric and North American biases prevalent in much of tattoo research, by including various analyses based in locations such as Malaysia, Israel, East Africa, and India. The thematic focus is on the transformative capacity of tattoos and tattooing, with regard to the social construction of bodies and subjectivity; the (re-)creation of social relationships through the definition of (non-)tattooed others; the formation and consolidation of group identities, traditions, and authenticity; and the conceptualization of art and its relevance to tattoo artist–tattooee relations.

New York City Tattoo documents the lively, humorous and often violent history of the art from the early years of the 20th century, in the words of the men who "pushed the pins" in places like Coney Island and the Bowery. Tattooing at the time evoked the dangerous fringes of society, and for over a decade Michael McCabe assiduously gained the confidence of the few surviving practitioners of this vanished era. These highly-charged interviews provide a privileged look into a clannish world of honor, respect, and jealously guarded trade secrets. They reveal facets of New York social history and a volatile, misunderstood and secretive art form.

In the 1830s an Irishman named James F. O'Connell acquired a full-body tattoo while living as a castaway in the Pacific. The tattoo featured traditional patterns that, to native Pohnpeians, defined O'Connell's life; they made him wholly human. Yet upon traveling to New York, these markings singled him out as a freak. His tattoos frightened women and children, and ministers warned their congregations that viewing O'Connell's markings would cause the ink to transfer to the skin of their unborn children. In many ways, O'Connell's story exemplifies the unique history of the modern tattoo, which began in the Pacific and then spread throughout the world. No matter what form it has taken, the tattoo has always embodied social standing, aesthetics, ethics, culture, gender, and sexuality. Tattoos are personal and corporate, private and public. They mark the profane and the sacred, the extravagant and the essential, the playful and the political. From the Pacific islands to the world at large, tattoos are a symbolic and often provocative form of expression and communication. Tattooing the World is the first book on tattoo literature and culture. Juniper Ellis traces the origins and significance of modern tattoo in the works of nineteenth- and twentieth-century artists, travelers, missionaries, scientists, and such writers as Herman Melville, Margaret Mead, Albert Wendt, and Sia Figiel. Traditional Pacific tattoo patterns are formed using an array of well-defined motifs. They place the individual in a particular community and often convey genealogy and ideas of the sacred. However, outside of the Pacific, those who wear and view tattoos determine their meaning and interpret their design differently. Reading indigenous historiography alongside Western travelogue and other writings, Ellis paints a surprising portrait of how culture has been etched both on the human form and on a body of literature.

Trace the evolution of the Brooklyn tattooing scene's iconographic status with this rare look into the borough's gritty history. Long before hipsters called Brooklyn home, tattoo legends like Tony Polito, Mikey Perfetto, Marcus Pacheco, and Ronnie Dell'Aquila set long-lasting trends from the '50s on, and gave young artists hope in this often unforgiving town. Peter Caruso visits over a dozen owners, artists, and customers, relating Brooklyn's 20th-century tattoo history through biographies of gritty, no-nonsense tattoo artists. Here, they get the attention they deserve as they focus on events that shaped their craft and style and what inspired them, as teenagers, to follow the path of this often thankless profession in New York's toughest borough. "Back in the day," artists didn't apprentice, but, like the men in this book, learned the ropes in basements and worked out of kitchens, sometimes experimenting with Asian and tribal styles, but always returning to the colorful, traditional, American tattooing Brooklyn is known for.

With about 10–20% of the adult population in Europe being tattooed, there is a strong demand for publications discussing the various issues related to tattooed skin and health. Until now, only a few scientific studies on tattooing have been published. This book discusses different aspects of the various medical risks associated with tattoos, such as allergic reactions from red tattoos, papulo-nodular reactions from black tattoos as well as technical and psycho-social complications, in addition to bacterial and viral infections. Further sections are dedicated to the composition of tattoo inks, and a case is made for the urgent introduction of national and international regulations. Distinguished authors, all specialists in their particular fields, have contributed to this publication which provides a comprehensive view of the health implications associated with tattooing. The book covers a broad range of topics that will be of interest to clinicians and nursing staff, toxicologists and regulators as well as laser surgeons who often face the challenge of having to remove tattoos, professional tattooists and producers of tattoo ink.

Father Boyle started Homeboy Industries nearly 20 years ago, which has served members of more than half of the gangs in Los Angeles. This collection presents parables about kinship and the sacredness of life drawn from Boyle's years of working with gangs.