Customer Reviews

Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community

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

 

 

Ms. DeMello spends too much time acting as her own apologist as she explains how she acquired "insider" status in the tattoo community while still remaining an impartial observer. One thing I found particularly objectionable in her book was her apparent opinion, insinuated several times, that only women with "the body beautiful" should get tattoos (much less display them in public -- horrors!) As a woman (liberated, one assumes), Ms. DeMello should know better. This is one book which is going to end up in a used bookstore rather than in my collection.

Tattoo books usually have a lot of pictures in them - at least the ones I've seen do. This book, while written very nicely, didn't have many pictures, and the ones it did have are grainy and in black-and-white. The history of the tattoo community is interesting, though I would have liked to see a bit more on how tattooing evolved from ancient times to now, instead of just from the 80's to now.

This book is an anthropological study of the modern sub-culture of tattoo fans. It briefly touches on the history of tattoos in western culture, with a focus on tattoos merging into popular/middle class culture from the 1980's onward. It is very informative, and a great read - it is not a good book for those merely seeking tattoo pictures. The one downside to this book is it is copywrite 2000, which means it is now outdated by 9 years. The community has grown and changed so much with the use of the internet. Current trends like the newest celebrity craze for tattoos, tattoo relatity TV programs, and the re-popularization of old-school tattoos are not covered.

This is a very dry book. Much like some waning boot camper's war stories, or the villagers who told stories in The Blair Witch Project, Margo DeMello quotes herself and tells fun facts she heard from here and there, then pasted this whole giant scrapbook together. It's just a bunch of her opinions and her point of views, written by her to be the "T"ruth.

Not to say what she wrote does not have validity, but I'd imagine, if she doesn't repeat herself over the chapters so very often (I don't know how many times she had mentioned things like "people who endorse tattoos are mostly bikers, freaks and sailors", and the repetitive mentioning of the "mom" tattoos with not much further analogy of the culture), maybe it'll be more readable. It's taking me almost a month, and I can only read less than a dozen pages each time I breathe into it.

In total, she is a half-baked, elitist, self-proclaimed "insider" of the tattoo "communitas" that claims she KNOWS the community like a mother would claim to know her son. She took it too far, thinking she can analyze the biology and sociology of the situation in a third person's point of view. It doesn't matter how many American tattoo conventions she went to and how many tattoo parlor stories she had heard, this book is written BY a groupie, and is only meant to be read by her groupies. Maybe she can write news article about tattoos like an enthusiast participant of a pride parade, but this article is [holy HELL] almost 200 pages. It's 175 pages too long.

The book came very quickly and is in good shape. Couldn't ask for better online service.

Bodies of Inscription is a scholarly in depth look at the historical, social and political aspects of tattooing as a whole.

This is not a picture book, this is a book on tattoo history and sociology. She presents her points in a clear and concise manner. The section on the history of tattooing is very informative.

I began reading this book as a source for a research paper, then eventually read it cover to cover.

This book was ok! i was hoping for something more traditional in the designs the author gave her readers! i could have done i without the gang tattoes though!