Body Type is an eye-opening look into the amazingly creative ways that tattoo artists are utilizing typography. Whereas the majority of tattoo art uses images to convey messages, here the message actually is the image. Twenty-six alphabetical characters might not seem like much to work with, but a look through these photographs reveals the contrary. Here are truly unique social commentaries, expressions of love, hilarious examples of biting satire, plus some mottos, intricate logotypes, deeply personal song lyrics, and, of course, those tattoos that exist for one reason only: to shock the hell out of you. The crisp photographs are accompanied by an insightful commentary from renowned graphic designer and typographer Ina Saltz, plus consistently surprising and heartfelt explanations from the tattooed.
Ina Saltz is an art director, designer, author, photographer and Associate Professor of Art at The City College of New York whose areas of expertise are typography and magazine design. Since 2003, she has written over 50 articles on typography and design for Graphis, How Magazine, Step Inside Design Magazine, Folio Magazine and others.
Her third book, "Body Type 2: More Typographic Tattoos," was published in 2010 by Abrams. "Typography Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Working with Type," was published by Rockport Press in 2009. Ina's first book, "Body Type: Intimate Messages Etched in Flesh," was published by Abrams in 2006.
Please visit her website at www.bodytypebook.com
Twenty-six of Ina's essays on typography and logotypes will be published by Phaidon Press in 2010, entitled "Classics of Graphic Design." Her work has also appeared in "Handwritten," (2007) edited by Steve Heller; "100 Habits of Successful Publication Designers," (2008) by Laurel Saville; ??"Design Disasters: Great Designers, Fabulous Failures, and Lessons Learned," (2008) edited by Steve Heller; and "The Education of an Art Director," (2005) edited by Steve Heller and Veronique Vienne.
In 2006, her photographs from "Body Type" were exhibited at Cooper Union's Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography and in 2007, at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center's Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art.
Ina was the Design Director at Time Magazine (International Editions), Worth Magazine, and other magazines including Golf Magazine, Golf for Women Magazine, and Worldbusiness Magazine, and has consulted at Business Week and Consumer Reports. With her occasional collaborator, Donald Partyka, Ina designed a prototype for a new magazine for "policy wonks" called "The Americas Quarterly, for the Council of the Americas; AQ launched in 2007.
Ina is on the design faculty of the Stanford Publishing Course, and she has also taught "virtually" for Stanford via webcast. Ina frequently lectures on topics related to magazine design and typography, including, most recently, in Toronto, Atlanta, Denver, San Jose, Moscow and Amsterdam. In 2010 she will be presenting her lectures on editorial design in Calgary.
Ina was one of the first art directors to work on a computer in 1981 at Time Inc's Teletext Project, a precursor of the web.
Ina received a BFA from Cooper Union in New York City; her lifelong love of letterforms intensified there when she studied calligraphy with Don Kunz. Among her calligraphic teachers and mentors are Hermann Zapf and Donald Jackson.
Ina has chaired, co-chaired and judged numerous design, typography and photography competitions: the National Magazine Awards, AIGA, the Society of Publication Designers, and the Type Directors Club, the Ozzies, the City and Regional Magazine Association, and others.
