It’s year 1921 and Cyril “Cy” Parks is about to start his lifetime adventure and career as a tattoo artist. His apprenticeship, as he feels is, lasted a decade and was as ‘old school’ as one can possibly imagine. His master and teacher is eternally drunk and abusive and yet his personality is empowering and fascinating to Cy. From his early childhood exposed to the mysteries of the inside of the human body envelope, Cy learns how to look at human body from new and different angles and yet only many years after he comes to know that human skin is yet another body organ, as crucial as any others.

It’s year 1933 when Cy’s master dies and it’s time for him to become a full-fledged tattooist himself. Leaving behind everything he knew so far and moving to the Promise Land across Atlantic, Cy cannot leave behind his memories of the two people that mattered the most to him, his mother and his tattoo master, and they are always with him, in the new world and in the nooks and corners of his own inner world. Cy can’t leave his past behind him but he assumes a new name, the Electric Michelangelo, and builds his world anew from old demons of memory and new places and new people.

It’s spring 1940 when Cy meets Grace for the first time and something moves within him, ready and yet hesitant to open and let her in. She’s a fascinating and odd woman, gentle and rough at the same time; a part of the circus world thriving on Coney Island and about to become the Lady of Many Eyes, ready to undergo a metamorphosis thanks to Cy’s tattooing skills and to make Cy change himself.

* * *

There are seven important characters here and only four of them are people; two others are places, totally different and yet similar with their carnival-like atmosphere, crowds coming in and out and a feeling that anything can happen. Cy’s childhood’s world is the coastal Morecambe in England, a place to which ill people and tourists come in search for illusionary salvation and temporary rest; his adulthood’s haven is the American Coney Island, a vast and bustling freakshow, not immune to the changes of time and human moods and wants.

And finally there’s the art of tattooing which mysteries, beauty and ugliness appear over and over again in-between the lines of the novel. Tattooing here is not always shown as a glorious art that makes people become who they want to be. Tattooing here is shown as a complex art on the fringe of the society (it’s a novel about the past after all) that demands a serious approach, imagination and sensitivity founded on the thick skin. The tattooist’s job is not only to adorn their customers with flash designs, skulls, daggers and images of frivolous women, but also, or maybe above else, to deal with human skin, smell of people’s fear and doubts, their blood and sweat. Tattooing here transgresses the everydayness and becomes both something amazing and something vulgar, exposed and yet hidden in many social contexts.

Reading this novel reminded me of the biography of Tattoo Theo and him meeting his own mentor and master, Christian Warlich. The novel has the same ‘old times’ touch and feel of authenticity to it and reminds me of the long-gone past of the trade that still tries to establish itself as an art form.  

 A very good novel about the old times, tattoos, loss and gain, love and hate and many other things, that’s what this book is about.

Sarah Hall, The Electric Michelangelo, Faber and Faber 2004;

A little more about Sailor Jerry and Tattooed Under Fire documentaries; I really hope that this ‘under fire’ one will be possible to buy.

 Various statistics about tattoos in the USA are old news by now but this one presents both more general and local data: ‘Tat stats’ from Minnesota. ‘All ink and bodies’ presents the tattoo industry in Fiji – more exotic and more rarely described a location.

 Interesting oppositions: a fancy NYC hotel gets a tattooist-in-residence (quite famous a one at that) while a small club in Scotland seems to be banning tattoos; another in the ‘ban’ vein is the one from MO where a nursing school bans visible tattoos.

 This one is in Polish, so let me say more about it; the title is ‘already an art form or still a subculture?’ and one of the people quoted in it offers an interesting (and quite unrealistic, I think) idea that soon tattooing will be offered at art schools as one of the possible career paths. Any thoughts?

I’m still waiting for my copy of ‘Hori Smoku’ documentary and here is another interesting one that should be made more accessible: ‘tattooed under fire’ about soldiers and tattoos ( trailer).

 In China tattoos seem to be a huge obstacle if one wants to be a soldier, though: ‘terrible tattoo, a sad way to lose college and army opportunities.’

 Another Asia-related one is ‘Yakuza: Japan’s Not-So-Secret Mafia.’

 My personal impression is that it’s a very American thing to combine years of experience to advertise a business – two artists with 10 years of experience each thus make 20 years of experience combined. Sometimes years of experience are pretty impressive anyway, though: the OH artist working here does really have (over) 31 years of experience under her own belt.

 Another local shop and artist, this time from NJ, in an article about Tattoo Tony.

 Nice, quite random tattoos in a blog post ‘Weekly Ink.’

 The Living Canvas book by Karen L. Hudson reminded me that body art is not only about tattoos, piercings or scarification but also about less permanent forms of art; here pretty stunning examples of body painting!

I got to read about it on Zentastic first (and Shannon’s disclaimer right on the top of it really is heart-breaking as, personally, I think his writing on the subject was always very inspiring and I miss it a lot!) but here we have it in the news of sort, too: ‘FBI demands tattoo shops rat on customers.’

 Filled with portraits of people this one is going to be:

 Jews and tattoos in ‘my rose tattoo’ and ‘breaking the tattoo taboo’ which quotes Ami James.

 Another Ink TV star, Corey Miller, in an article showing the place he lives in. And another one in the ‘Ink TV’ vein but also discussing military tattoos in ‘tattoos are more than art for local marine.’

 This AZ article claims that ‘piercings is a cool job’ while this one from NV portrays the current situation in the local industry and hints on economy, too.

 Tattoo sleeves in a new book ‘Bloodwork: Sleeves.’

 With Halloween just being over, here are two somewhat related  articles: ‘one-day tattoos’ thanks to tattoo spray (looks like fake body art was a hit this year) and a nice frightening slideshow of scary tattoos.

Branding isn’t featured often in the online newspapers, so this one, ‘a different brand of body art,’ is worth some attention; not to mention that it’s a good opportunity to remind of a huge figure in the body modification movement (if there is any), Fakir Musafar.

The southern hemisphere represented by two articles on two different subjects: serious problem about rising number of backyard tattooers in Australia and another one about cultural differences experienced by New Zealand athletes visiting Japan.

The topic of Church and tattoos appears again: a bit more info on the English vicar who’s a fan of tattoos (previously mentioned here) and a German article about a local church in Hamburg using temporary tattoos as a way to attract people (as they said, ‘church can be fun!’).

Body modification and world records (or just attempts at them): the most pierced man in the world (interestingly enough, no word about Elaine Davidson) and a failed attempt at world record in CO (noble reason behind).

 Something lighter to end today’s post: Pink’s new clothing line inspired by tattoos (how original!) and a few Harry Potter tattoos.

 After ‘Ink. The Not-Just-Skin-Deep Guide To Getting a Tattoo’ by Terisa Green from 2005 and Elayne Angel’s ‘Piercing Bible’ from 2009 now I also had a chance to read ‘Living Canvas. Your Total Guide to Tattoos, Piercings and Body Modification’ by Karen L. Hudson.

 While reading this new guide I couldn’t resist comparing it with the book by Elayne Angel but this comparison wasn’t very detrimental to Hudson’s book.

 As the title of the guide suggests, Hudson had a broader perspective in mind and aimed at creating a book that covers both tattoos and body piercings while Angel focused on body piercing only (quite understandably, seeing how she’s a master in this field). Apparently not new to body modification herself (tattoo apprenticeship in the past, running a website devoted to the subject and an editor of the ‘Chick Ink’ book already), Hudson could use her experience and knowledge to write a book that tries to show what body modification is about.

 Two main parts of the book focus on describing the processes of getting a tattoo and body piercings and cover all the basic information one may need to go through their experience as problem-free as possible. Chapters are usually short, well organized and trying to answer all possible questions and doubts one may have, from the infamous ‘does it hurt?’ to ‘what ointment and how much of it to use during a healing period of a new tattoo.’ Hudson covers the most popular types of piercings, jewelry, materials that body jewelry is made from and many other useful topics. To make the book even more detailed (it’s supposed to be a ‘total’ guide after all) the author also included chapters on other forms of body modification, i.e. extreme body modification (although this one is very short and barely mentions such fascinating procedures as tongue splitting or ear pointing), cosmetic tattooing (a pretty good section, actually), henna ‘tattoos’ and body painting.

 It’s obvious that the book is mainly addressed to those who are only about to enter the body modification realm and tries to show its readers that modifying our bodies is not necessarily as scary and painful as one may think although it also requires some efforts and research beforehand. Its tone is friendly and encouraging and, as a whole, one reads is with pleasure.

 Well done and nicely researched as it is, however, there are still a few details that could have been done better. The section about metals used for body jewelry isn’t as detailed and informative as in Elayne Angel’s book and while discussing silicon jewelry Hudson doesn’t mention that many people experience allergic reactions to it and doesn’t warn against using silicone for stretching which definitely should be done (to be fair, Angel doesn’t write about it in her book, either). The part about healing times for various piercings is also very short and not easy to find, so Angel’s healing times chart seems even better an idea than when I got to read her book for the first time. Also, Hudson’s book seems to be addressed mainly to Americans which means that it uses only gauge sizes which say nothing to an average European interested in body piercings while Angel’s book contains gauge conversion chart which shows clearly metric equivalents of gauge sizes and thus may be useful to people using the metric system. Finally, many photographs used in Hudson’s book are not only black-and-white only but they are also small and their captions are positioned sideways which makes them uncomfortable to look at/read.

 Having said all of that, though, I must say that I found this book a good read up and I think it’s a nice addition to the publishers’ book offer. The subject is presented in a good, clear way and one may find here many answers to their questions and doubts. It would be good to read both the ‘Piercing Bible’ and the ‘Living Canvas’ to get the best from both titles but if you end up with reading only Hudson’s book, you will still have a chance to become more educated and better prepared for your next body modification.

 Karen L. Hudson, Living Canvas. Your Total Guide to Tattoos, Piercings and Body Modification, Seal Press 2009

News about the Biggest Tattoo Show on Earth were already posted here but this piece could be published only after the event took place:  ‘Mario Barth breaks world record hosting the show.’

 An interesting piece of news from Florida where the local senator, Eleanor Sobel, is going to visit a tattoo parlor to see herself what the whole tattoo deal really is about.

 Another take on tattoos and religion: ‘vicar to get tattoo to remember congregation’ and ‘San Antonio church believes tattoos are fine, obesity is not.’ I’d actually say ‘Amen’ to the latter one

 Tattoos and jobs in a short article ‘tattoo me, tattoo you?’

 This British article focuses more on a canoe than on tattoos but it’s interesting anyway: ‘Canoe project for tattooed Maori.’

 Finally, something to look at: Kavadi shot in a Belgian post titled ‘the most bizarre piercings’ and an American gem ‘the best of the worst tattoos in mugshots.’

Best wishes to Hello Kitty as apparently today it’s her birthday; the occasion is celebrated in Las Vegas, NV.

 An interesting choice of place for a tattoo convention in Philadelphia where a tattoo festival took place on a warship – a kind of tribute to all these seasoned sailors who brought tattoos to Europe and loved it for centuries. An upcoming convention, probably in a less interesting location, in Vienna, Austria in November.

 Tattoos and religion in ‘religious tattoos question faith’ and ‘church where tattoos outnumber ties.’ Probably it’s up to God how to look at tattoos and people who have them.

 In the last post I linked to an article about a British shop openly advertising tongue splitting; here an article why at least Vigo county, IN, shops should not do so: ‘ordinance to outlaw tongue splitting.’

Marisa Kakoulas of needlesandsins in an interview and a short post about Halloween customs exploiting tattoo culture; and just to confirm this point two other articles on the subject: ‘temporary Halloween tattoos’ and ‘glitter temporary tattoos to advertise a business.’

 Another big figure in the tattoo world, this time from Germany: Herbert Hoffmann in an article describing his life and tattoos.

 The article about Coptic tattoos was linked to in the last post; here’s another one on the subject: ‘missing the point of Coptic tattoos.’

 It’s quite unusual to see a shop advertising more extreme procedures: ‘branding, tongue splitting services coming to North Devon.’

Indirectly related: ‘the agony of body artist’ about ‘high art’ using body as a medium; a short story by Kafka, the Hunger Artist, is linked to it, so make sure to check it out, too, if you click on the article.

 ‘Popeye arm’ to end today’s post – human body really is amazing.

Otzi was mentioned on here at least a few times but it’s always interesting to read about him (although I don’t like looking at him much), so here’s another short one on the subject: ‘Otzi remains mysterious.’

 An interesting addition to my ‘anthropology’ category: ‘Egypt’s Christians uphold tattoo tradition.’

 Health and body modification: ‘tongue stud ‘brain fatality risk’ and ‘Kendal hospital unveils nipple-tattooing machine.’

 A German article ‘between art and madness’ hints on the latter while discussing the current trends in body modification while a text from India focuses more on the question of addiction when tattoos are concerned.

 No more secretive piercings and other mods? New full body scanner is supposed to reveal everything!

 One of the human marvels, the Enigma, in a short review of one his shows.

 Finally, a pretty cool one from Omaha, NE - creative captions contest, body modification-related, of course.