Customer Reviews

The Body Art Book: A Complete, Illustrated Guide to Tattoos, Piercings, and Other Body Modification

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

 

 

I can not believe that a publisher would agree to call this book 'complete' it is ANYTHING but complete. In fact, it is downright skimming. This shows some poorly drawn illustrations of completed facial piercings/ear piercings and that is about it - there is no 'guide' about it. It shows a few pages of colour tattoos, but clearly was not well thought out. I am returning mine and suggest that if you pay more than garage sale price, youve been taken. My opinion, thats all.

First off this book has hardly any illustratons. It has no business claiming to be a complete illustrated guide to anything. The photographs seem to be taken all off the same shop, as if they are just an advertisement for Streamline Tattoo. While they are very nice tattoos there are a tun of other great artists within driving distance of that shop. The only person who would enjoy this book would be a somebody with no idea about tattoos or piercings. A person with no knowledge of the industry (as if they were living on mars) may find this useful. I'm returning my copy. I feel it is not, what it was represented to be. I was very disapointed.

This book is good for people who are starting to get interested in the body art community. The first section explains why people get involved and why it is done. Followed by a summary and explanations of tattoo meanings and places that can be pierced. This book does not include any information on "extreme" piercings. a very very limited picture galary with some low quality sketches. A page about healing times, and the end is a complete list of tattoo and piercing parlours around the world. This will vary in time and does not seem to cover the asian-pacific region. Once again good for getting people started.

Well written, everything is a very positive way.

"The Body Art Book" is billed as a "complete, illustrated guide," which it isn't. It highlights many topics, but none in depth. There are eight pages of color photos, and some black and white illustrations. However, for every thing I found wrong with this book, there was an equal and opposite reaction. For example:

Regarding latex gloves: "Every piercer MUST wear latex gloves when touching sterilized tools or jewelry." Should this read "Every BODY ARTIST?" (After all, NOT only piercers should be gloved!) Furthermore, what about artists or clients with latex allergies? However, pointing out that gloves should be changed if the [artist] picks up the phone was very important.

Regarding piercing guns: not enough emphasis, in my opinion, placed on the fact that professional piercers never use guns. However, the author DOES mention it, which is information that a lot of people don't know.

There were a few snide comments about people who get body modifications to be cool. While that wouldn't be my motivation, if I were the author I might have said something more to the effect of One's body is sacred, so one might want to take that into consideration before making permanent changes for the sake of fashion (in other words, perhaps less condescending).

I'm also not crazy about the layout of the book. Piercing and tattoo information is separated within chapters, instead of being in separate chapters. Also, I don't know why henna and scarification were in the same chapter!

The author seems to have fleshed out an outline, but doesn't seem to have gone much further. It's a shame, because there is a ton of information on the Internet that would have given a great deal of substance to this book.

There IS some incredibly valuable information in this book -- information that many people wouldn't have without doing some research AND information with which most people are not armed before walking into a studio.

(This book was a Wishlist purchase.)

This is a book for the person who is going to get their first tattoo or piercing. Those who have done much reading elsewhere, or have learned something from the street would be advised to search elsewhere. The artwork is especially second rate. If you want to write an explanitory "text" book then you need some good medical illustrators, if you want to show off some nice work then you need good, big, glossy photos. This book fails on both counts.

Being avid about body modification, I bought this to add to my collection, and never has a book dissapointed me so much. It's claim to being "complete" is a blatant lie. It might be a decent read for those that don't know the first thing about body modification, but for anyone with a serious interest, get "modern primitives" if you don't already have it.

As for "the body art book", it is an ill-informed, very poorly illustrated entry that seems to be little more than a cash-in on the upsurge of body mods.

This book is written like it's talking to a child, which i find very unappealing. It's good for a quick read, but hard to keep focused on it becuase it seems rather boring, to me anyway. It also had very juvenile information in it, like safety, which is really common sense. The pictures were lacking. I was especially disappointed with the pictures that went along with the text, because they didn't have captions. I didn't like this book very much and I plan on returning it.

It is very complete and has a lot of information however I was disapointed because there is not much of interest if you are already knowledgeable in the subject. Addresses the reader in an infantile tone which I disliked and I found it rather repetitive .

I agree with some of the other reviewers - don't get this book unless you want *everything* on this subject - this is written by a person that really doesn't understand the concepts behind why most people get pierced. Also - you'll get more pics and illustrations in your average tattoo mag.

First off this book has hardly any illustratons. It has no business claiming to be a complete illustrated guide to anything. The photographs seem to be taken all off the same shop, as if they are just an advertisement for Streamline Tattoo. While they are some nice tattoos there are a tun of great artists within driving distance of that shop. The only person who would enjoy this book would be a somebody with no idea about tattoos or piercings. A person with no knowledge of the industry (as if they were living on mars) may find this useful. I'm returning my copy. I feel it is not, what it was represented to be. I was very disapointed.