Customer Reviews

1000 Tattoos

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Excellent visual depiction of the natural progression of tattoos from the early days as rites of passage in indian tribes to the use of tattoos to pledge allegiance to motorcycles. I recommend this book to anyone who has an affinity for tattoos.

I really enjoy this book and never get tired of perusing it, but it is very heavy on old school designs with very little modern stuff to chew on. I love the old tattoo photos from the early 20th century, and a lot of the black and white shots of oldies like Les Skuse at work. A great photographic history, indeed.

Again, the only real shortcoming is the lack of modern designs, but it makes up for it with all of the great old school photos. A great resource to have as a compliment to other books and manuals.

Seriously, this book is much more fun to read than use as a doorstop, but that is an accurate reference to its very thick size! Amsterdam tattooist Henk Schiffmacher has collected material from far and wide within the tattoo scene for this comprehensive volume.

Drawn flash and photographic images date back as far as the late 19th century, covering material from Europe and England to the distant Pacific islands. Modern tribal and post-modern colorways from the US and UK are also well represented. Black and white as well as color images cram each page. A good foundation to any tattoo library. Tattooists would do well to keep a copy around the shop to keep indecisive clientele busy.

I am a big fan of Tattoos, I have many Tattoos myself, and this book is a great recource on the wide world of tatoos.

This book lacks a lot. First, it does not address many of the pre-eminent tattooists of the recent past and present. For example, there is no Guy Aitchison, no Aaron Cain, no Dan Hazelton, etc. People like this have been essential to the recent developments of the tattoo. Second, as one of the reviewers below notes, there is not much in the way of written history here. That is both good and bad since it is nice to have all these pictures, but I found my self wanting explanations and background. Third, many of the photos in this book are downright unpleasant in the aesthetic sense. In other words, they depict awful tattoos on people that I don't really want to see naked. I know this is part of the history, but I don't really need to see a close up some guy's private parts tattooed with a devil head. I'm not a prude, but I certainly prefer the more stylish pictures that many of the tattoo magazines offer (especially International Tattoo Art).

A great photographic chronicle of tattoos, from the tradition moko of the Maori to modern-style American design. Very comprehensive coverage of different eras, styles, artists, etc., with text that explains the photos without trying to be stupidly hip. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of skin art.

This the most complete and up to date resource i've found on tattos in a single book.

First of all, this book DOES give a bit of the fascinating background of tattooing through the ages. It also DOES give plenty of photographs (~90-95% of the book).

However, it does not give much in the way of explanation of where the modern styles developed. It also spends the majority of its pages on "Old School" flash, opting to only show modern tattoos in the last 5-10% of the book. Also, MANY of the photographs are in black and white, so you can't get a good feel for the use of color on a lot of them.

All in all, this is a good resource. It shows a lot of tattoos, but information-wise, it's a little thin.

Cool pixes. And very original

I got this book from my local library. It was in the "employee recommendations" section. It's a pretty neat book. I don't personally have any tattoos because I figure I'd hate to be stuck with them for life and my dad told me when I was young that he was so proud of the skin his parents gave him that he didn't want to mess it up. My dad fought in WWII, went through the great depression, owned a Model T as his first car which his brother and him paid slightly over $800 for new from a dealer as their jobs as newsboys at the time and $1 for a drivers license so his opinions mean a lot and he always valued a clean shave so I've never had a beard. I liked a few of the tattoo designs in this book. The pinup girls/naked women are cute, page 65, page 130/131, page 552. Most of the other tattoos didn't seem very original. I want originality if I'm going to be looking at something and very little in this book was that way. I didn't buy this book and for a library rental it garners 3/5 stars.