Customer Reviews

Permanence: Tattoo Portraits by Kip Fulbeck

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am taken by the sheer honesty of the participants in this book. The photos are beautiful but it is the portraits the seem to capture the essence of each individual. Every unique personality from the hilarious to the sublime stand out. This book is a marvel of understatement in a medium that is all about overstatement.

I have the author's other books and this book is a great addition to my collection. It's really entertaining, funny and powerful. I LOVE the photographs! I don't have a ton of tattoos myself (I have two) The book is different from other tattoo books in that it's more about the personal stories done in the person's own handwriting. A lot of the stories are amazing especially the gangbangers and Holocaust survivors. There's even a firefighter from 9/11. I leave the book out and guests always pic it up and totally get into it.

Plus I'm a huge fan of Kat Von D so having her interviewed in there was an extra bonus!! It's funny that the celebrities aren't named they're just in there which is cool people like Margaret Cho and Chuck Liddell and Slash. I gave the book to my tattoo artist and he recognized a ton of other tattoo artists in there and said some of them were world famous as well. Very cool!

its a small book with breif writing from the person who got the tattoo and I liked it. Wish you could see some different angles of the people with alot of the tats but I still liked the book good gift.

This is a unique booki that has a lot of people's thoughts and ideas. It is a great coffee table peice and I often find myself looking through it.

The synthesis of text and photo is a brilliant format for storytelling. This series is a wonderful collection of works and stories, fitting in with Fulbeck's greater body of work dealing with subcultures and perception. Lots of interesting and recognizable people inside with some beautiful, body art.

Love this book. Saw it in a Dutch shop (in the Netherlands obviously), but it was way cheaper to get it trough Amazon! It's great fun to read and watch. It's not about the most beautiful tattoos, but it's about the stories behind it. The photos are well taken and the stories are written in different fonts. It's also a great gift!

I love Kip Fulbeck's other book and definitely wasn't disappointed by this one!
The portraits are great and there is a wide variety of tattoo themes and styles and people represented.
The notes on the side are very interesting.
I'm very happy I got this book =]

Just recieved this book yesterday. I thought it would be a bit bigger, but this is only 7 x 7. It is a very unique book with great personal stories. I myself have roughly around 20 tattoos, I lost count to be honest. But as we all know there is a story behind each piece we get. I laughed, smiled and was saddened by some stories. It sits on my coffee table and I am sure friends and family will also enjoy this book.

I thought the book would be bigger in size as it is touted as a photographic feast - I expected almost a portfolio of pictures and detailed stories, however this is tiny at 18cm by 18cm and shows only a snippet of handwriting on each pic.

I was also looking forward to seeing what the celebrities said about their tatts but in some of the photos you can't even tell whose tatt it is they are pretty much anonymous.

I guess I'll keep this in my collection for posterity but frankly it didn't live up to the reviews I had read and for the price I am a little disappointed. I also didn't think much of the interviewer's style of writing.

The photographs were classy and slick and the subject matter is awesome though!

This is a LOT more book than I thought it would be. In putting this together, the author wasn't (really) interested in the ink itself, the interest is in the stories _behind_ the ink.

You'll find stories about remembering, about not _wanting_ to remember, about the bad, about the good, about the funny, about the serious. A nice touch here is that each picture of person/ink is accompanied by a short description in the person's own writing. It's an artistic choice that brings up even more personality from the book.

Cheers Mr. Fulbeck!