do you think you are serious about tattooing? consider yourself a bit of an expert on it? and you don't have this book? (not even any of the other tattootime issues?) then re-think and re-consider! anyone serious about tattooing, its backgrounds, its history should have this book. and all the other four issues. they are all out on hardy marks publications; the publishing company owned and run by don ed hardy. whom you should know.this volume is entitled "tattoo magic" and covers the following topics:
1. religious christian tattoos. apparently it already says in the bible that you should not tattoo your skin. here they elaborate on that believe, and prove that according to history it can't just be quite true...
2. inventive "cover-ups". here they show step by step progress of the cover-ups. all of them perfectly executed by don ed hardy himself. inspiring for any tattooer, i'd say.
3. sacred calligraphy. this chapter is only two pages long, and has only a short text about tattoing in the holy language of sanskrit. nevertheless, very interesting. (it inspired me for yet another tattoo...)
4. tattoing charms. here you get good background information on how this is handled in thailand. and how important it is there!
5. dragon tattoo design. not much new information if you already know about this subject, but some great photographs of works of various artists are shown.
6. tattoo magic. tattoo magic!
7. interview with richard o. tyler. an interesting talk with an interesting person. richard o. tyler was, amongst other things, a tattooer who believed in the magic of it, used very special home-made inks and tattooed only according to astrological laws.
as in all the other "tattootime" issues, all the photographs included are very good, and so are the "suggested further reading" listings at the end of each article/chapter.
