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Pen & Ink: Tattoos And The Stories Behind Them (2014)

by Isaac Fitzgerald(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1620404907 (ISBN13: 9781620404904)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Bloomsbury USA

review 1: I requested this book from the library, sight unseen. I love tattoos, I love images and stories behind them. I was really excited.Imagine my disappointment and annoyance when I discovered this wasn't pictures, but illustrations. Not what I signed up for. But I stuck with it, and was delighted.By showing illustrations, you get the full effect of the tattoos. You're not distracted by body types, or imperfections. It's disconnected arms, backs, hips, legs, with beautiful and rather simple drawings on the skin. You get the impact of the story, without being distracted if the tattoo is less than your standards for good ink, and without thinking negatively about a person's looks.A handful even made me cry. I actually took pictures of the two that meant the most to me, including ... morethe woman who got "My hero rescues animals" tattooed down her spine. My heart. Beautiful book. I want to own it.
review 2: I was disappointed with this book. I love tattoos and hearing the stories behind them, so I thought this would be a really interesting book. One of the authors explains the artwork in the book as "A tattoo, whether an ornate full back piece or a scratcher job done in somebody's living room, is art. A photograph of a tattoo never quite captures it; here, art represents art, art representing stories, stories representing life." (p. x) So each story is a drawing of a person and their tattoo(s). Some of the stories are for older, first tattoos, so a photograph might not do it justice, but that's what I would have rather seen. Some of the stories were interesting, but some were just a line or two without much of a story. Overall, it was disappointing and I wouldn't recommend it. less

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