cover image Tattoo: Pigments of Imagination

Tattoo: Pigments of Imagination

Chris Wroblewski. Alfred van der Marck Editions, $15.95 (126pp) ISBN 978-0-912383-44-6

First published in Britain, this colorful volume celebrates tattooing as an art of ""delight, imagination, adventure and unusual creativity,'' in the words of Wroblewski, an English photographer who was first tattooed when he was 15. His pictures show many kinds of tattoos, including elaborate tattoos on punks (often on their scalps), classic American tattoos (``Mom'' and girlfriends' names), tattoos worn by Maoris and people in Southeast Asia. In his informative essay, Wroblewski traces the history of tattoos, from the first evidence of its use on Egyptian mummies, dating from around 2000 B.C., through tribal popularity in Indonesia and Polynesia (the word derives from the Polynesian word tatau, to the extensive ``subculture'' of today. While many of these photographs will shock and disgust, some will be considered artas the wearers and tattooers wish. (June)