This week the lovely people at Titan Books sent me a book to review called Body Art, which is a book from the makers of Bizarre. I’ve seen these things on the shelves before from Bizarre, though this is the first Titan edition. Titan will also be re-issuing the previous Body Art books too, from the looks of things. The book, which is chock full of 157 pages of tattoos, piercings and other body modifications is kind of a lot to take in, so let’s get to business!
This book has so much information you’ll be surprised at how small it really is- there are features on tattoos, piercings, stretching, implants, scarification and even a look at what people may be doing to adorn their skin in the future. There are also a lot of the usual Bizarre vixen and pin up girls in here too, and interviews with a few people in the biz’.
Something I really like about this book is how friendly it is. It’s written in a way which doesn’t alienate anyone who is new to any body modifications, yet it still keeps the right tone with information and a respect to the history of things.
On the tattoo front, there are good and bad things in this book. On a positive side, the history section is well thought out, and you may learn one or two things you didn’t know before. There is also a small guide to getting your first tattoo, which I like as it reminds people to think about things properly. Unfortunately, on a more negative side of things, the quality of the work inside the book is lacking. There are some pretty bad tattoos in this book, which makes me wonder why they’re in there (perhaps Bizarre had troubles finding readers with good tattoos who wanted to be involved?). I mean, there are some good tattoos in there, but they’re among some terrible ones. On a more personal note, I didn’t understand why interviews with Kat Von D and lots of women’s boobs equals tattooing.
Oh, I do hate criticising things, you know, because overall this is quite a decent book. It’s chock full of other good things, like information on implants which I really found interesting, and I love how typical of Bizarre it is in its cheeky charm. I think this might be a good gift for someone who’s just starting to get into a form of body modification, as it’d make a nice companion to their research.
You can buy Body Art from any good bookshop from the 24th of May, or on Amazon here, or Bizarre’s website here. I’ll also be holding a competition in a little while where you’ll be able to win your own copy, so check back here in around half an hour!
Filed under: General News Tagged: bizarre, bizarre magazine, body art, book, books, implants, kat von d, piercing, pin up, Reviews, scarification, Tattoo, tattoos, vixens
