Multi.Colored—tattooed people, tattoo dreams

I’m a firm believer in the power of the printed word.  Of course, I have been an avid reader for about 55 years now, so I have had plenty of practice.  To me, the best way to get educated on just about anything is to read, read, read!  (See my series of posts called Ten Ways to Take a Stand Against Ignorance for a more complete view of my feelings on the subject.)

Before I got my first tattoo, I scoured the local public libraries and Amazon for books that might help me understand what I was getting into.  (I was not much of an internet browser at that point and thus missed out on a bajillon highly informative web sites, something I’ve done my best to remedy in the years since.)  The best book I found, pre-first-tattoo, was The Total Tattoo Book by Amy Krakow.  Once I’d read that, I had a much better idea of what to expect, and it remains a valuable reference.

Last year, I found Ink: The Not-Just-Skin-Deep Guide to Getting a Tattoo, by Terisa Green, Ph.D.  If ever a book lived up to its title, this one’s the one.  The author covers the whole tattoo experience, from planning through aftercare, and offers an incredible wealth of useful tips, history, etiquette suggestions and tattoo trivia.  I read the book from cover to cover in an afternoon (I’m a fast reader) and then went back through it a couple more times (I’m an avid re-reader, too).  The only criticisms I have of the book is that it has no index and no table of contents, either or both of which would have made it easier to use for reference.  I provided my own homebrew solution by putting Post-It™ flags on pages of special interest.

If you’d like more information on either essential book, you can click on the cover images I’ve posted here.  Knowledge is power. 

Thanks, everyone, for waiting out the technical difficulties over the past few days.  I should have everything back on schedule in very short order.

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