We'll written book. Interesting subject and very easy to read.

Not just a beautiful cover.

An in depth and well researched look at the modern history of women and tattooing.

It focuses mainly on the west, starting with The Tattooed Lady in the circus, to women as tattoo artists in the early 1900's and right up to the modern day industry and the struggles for female tattoo artists as well as tattooed women.

With a great selection of photographs and snippets of interviews from a who's who of female tattoo artists, this is a must read for anyone interested in the subject.

easy read with lots of pictures

thought this was going to be more academic however

Feminism + tattoos = INCREDIBLE BOOK. This is a fantastic, fascinating read. And the gorgeous pictures just make it that much better. I can't believe I waited so long to read this.

As a heavily tattooed woman myself, it really made me appreciate the rich history of tattooed women, and the role it plays in why, where, & what we get tattooed. The concept of using it as a way to own my own body in the face of abuse & the litany of legislation written by old white evangelical men to tell me what I can & can't do with my body was something I had never actually consciously THOUGHT about, but it really struck home with me.

This book made me even prouder to be a feminist, and a tattooed one at that. I bought a copy for my (female) tattooist as well. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did.

Not just a beautiful cover.

An in depth and well researched look at the modern history of women and tattooing.

It focuses mainly on the west, starting with The Tattooed Lady in the circus, to women as tattoo artists in the early 1900's and right up to the modern day industry and the struggles for female tattoo artists as well as tattooed women.

With a great selection of photographs and snippets of interviews from a who's who of female tattoo artists, this is a must read for anyone interested in the subject.

Grace

Splendid vizual, foarte informativ (în istoria artei tatuajului, cu accent pe "artă") și cu o solidă perspectivă sociologic-feministă.

Pioneering, painstaking feminist history of women tattoo artists and women with tattoos. Definitely worth checking out for the first section about the early days of women's tattoo in America. It's crazy to read about just how unthinkable and beyond the pale getting tattoos was for most of society just 100 years ago, especially for women, and how that manifested in phenomena like early tattooees being able to make a living as circus sideshow curiosities, often marrying their tattoo artist, and/or making up weird stories about being abducted by indians and forcibly tattooed to explain themselves to the public.

The chapters on more recent history feel a little rote to me, like a directory of important artists with less organization and development of themes than I might like. And it kept bugging me how the pictures don't appear in line with the relevant section of text so I had to keep flipping back and forth to try to find the pictures of who Mifflin is talking about at any given time.

I like hearing the wildly different anecdotes/explanations/theories about why people get tattoos.

I would say about half the men [I worked on] got tattooed just to get tattooed, whereas almost all the women were getting a tattoo for a reason, says [Sheila] May...(p.56)

I like seeing how much Seattle shows up in tattoo history, like with Vyvyn Lazonga's 1979 tattoo shop.

Some of the recurring themes are Mifflin lamenting what she considers the over-sexualization and "relentless cheese-cakery of women in the tattoo media", and how the "fine arts world" typically ignores the history and development of tattoo as an art form (example p.101/102). I can see what she means about the cheese-cakery looking at the cover of my recent Tattoo magazine, but on the other hand tattoos are intrinsically sexual since they are made on human bodies and I don't have a super clear picture of what Mifflin envisions a more equitable, preferable media landscape of tattoo art to look like. I assume she would prefer the objectification/sexualization to be more of the self-objectification/self-sexualization variety, which I totally agree with. It's the same problem mainstream porn has.

But as far as she seems like she wants insiders and outside scholars in general to be more "serious" about the tattoo art world, I don't really follow her. I personally don't give a shit about whether art is "serious" as such. The high brow/low brow thing just feels like ridiculous arbitrary wall-building to me and I've never been able to detect any correlation between art being good and whether it is "high brow" and "serious" or "low brow" and "vernacular", or whatever.

This was one of those interesting-but-boring books. Like a textbook. You know that the information is probably fascinating and you’re definitely curious about it, but it’s presented in a way that makes it taste like dirt rather than delicious cuisine.

Some folks really like textbooks. They like the endless names and dates and oh-so-minute specifics that frankly just make my mind fall asleep. I’m a memoir girl all the way. I mean, what’s the overall picture here? Where’s the story? Where’s the flavor?

I suppose it’s a personal preference; I’m the type who needs more abstract, big-picture storytelling and less “Jane Doe was born on January 1, 1885 in San Antonio, Texas and in 1900 opened a tattoo shop in San Diego, California where she utilized a single needle tattoo method developed in the early 1700′s.” BLAH. Save your dry regurgitation of facts– it feels SO beige. I’m craving some color here (which, by the way, you’d think wouldn’t be too difficult given that the topic is tattooing…). Good thing the book included some beautiful tattoo pictures or I may not have made it out alive.

Textbook-y style aside, women and tattoos do indeed have a very cool history that is worthy of print and discussion. Tattooing has swung from taboo to mainstream to taboo again throughout history, and women have had a particularly complex and remarkable relationship with the art form. From sexualization and objectification to self-expression, memorial, and explicit declarations of self-determination, tattooing represents an enormous variety of meaning that has been ever-evolving over the course of the thousands of years that folks have been hammering ink and ash into their skin.

Women as artists, too, are an interesting topic of contemplation. Like most other professions, feminist waves broke their way, slow and steady, through layer upon layer of misogyny and oppression in the world of tattooists. Still not completely void of sexism but definitely making progress, third wave feminists are both reaping rewards of those who fought before, and struggling with their own battles to be heard and respected for their art rather than their genitalia.

Long story short– killer topic, not my favorite book.

I loved the pictures of the beautiful work.
I did get lost in the repetitive histories of who and when. The early chapters were best and I learnt a lot about early tattoo history for women.

The books is like a mosaic in which the tiles are the brief accounts of female artists and models and the accompanying images. And that's more than enough to get a clear historical picture, just don't expect an academic dissection of the various historical moments.
The same thing could be said for the feminist perspective: it is a vital part of the book, but you won't find it discussed explicitly discussed by the author. The reasons for the author's positions are inferable even if often left unexplained, for example when she talks about the "tramp stamps". A discussion about these aspects could fit easily a whole bookcase, so their absence is a limitation of the book, but this also makes the book more coherent and readable.

This book has several great pictures. It starts out more with the Circus Ladies and then it ends with telling about female tattoo artists & their work. I especially liked the picture of a woman's tattoos in the 60's and then her tattoos about 25 years later because the tattoos still looked very good :-) This interesting book worth looking at even if you don't read all the words.

Really interesting social and feminist history of women and tattoos. Lots of great photos.