Tattoo Books & How To Tattoo Guides for the Tattoo Beginner

Tattoos have gone from badges of rebellion to fashion statements fully absorbed into mainstream culture. They are enjoying a renaissance, with graphic designers and artists creating specialty tattoos for a growing audience, unleashing a revival of interest in the bawdy vintage tattoo. Old school tattoos are being rediscovered (sometimes ironically, sometimes not) by a new generation. 

These days, it seems like everybody—male, female, young, and old—wants a tattoo. But choosing the right design isn’t always easy. Tattoo Johnny to the rescue! Culled from the world’s leading tattoo Web site, this in-depth resource offers more than 1,000 designs in a wide range of styles, all by renowned artists: angels, devils, flowers, pirates, pin-ups, religious images, stars, zodiac signs, and more. 

Tattoo art and practice has seen radical changes in the 21st century, as its popularity has exploded. An expanding number of tattoo artists have been mining the past for lost traditions and innovating with new technology. An enormous diversity of styles, genres, and techniques has emerged, ranging from geometric blackwork to vibrant, painterly styles, and from hand-tattooed works to machine-produced designs.

The Tattoo History Source Book is an exhaustingly thorough, lavishly illustrated collection of historical records of tattooing throughout the world, from ancient times to the present. Collected together in one place, for the first time, are texts by explorers, journalists, physicians, psychiatrists, anthropologists, scholars, novelists, criminologists, and tattoo artists.

The Tattoo History Source Book is an exhaustingly thorough, lavishly illustrated collection of historical records of tattooing throughout the world, from ancient times to the present. Collected together in one place, for the first time, are texts by explorers, journalists, physicians, psychiatrists, anthropologists, scholars, novelists, criminologists, and tattoo artists.

This book wont teach you how to tattoo like a professional. This book wont teach you how to make a million dollars by opening your own tattoo studio in a week. You should really be wary of any book that does promise that. This book WILL get you started with the basic foundation for your apprenticeship. Written for the apprentice by someone who competed a formal tattoo apprenticeship, documenting the lessons learned along the way. 

Newly revised and expanded, this remains the only book to chronicle the history of both tattooed women and women tattooists. Bodies of Subversion was the first history of women's tattoo art when it was released in 1997, providing a fascinating excursion to a subculture that dates back to the nineteenth-century and including many never-before-seen photos of tattooed women from the last century.

Forever More covers the best of the ever-changing contemporary tattoo underground. Bold tribal motifs and gritty stick and pokes bask in a resurgence alongside the fluidity of watercolors and the deviance of Art Brut. From traditional sessions in parlors to traveling artists, Forever More celebrates tattooing’s unsung heroes and contemporary celebrities. Forever More tracks the scene’s inventiveness and originality as tattoos continue to emerge from subculture obscurity. 

Tattoo Prodigies is a high quality,hard bound coffee table book that is 10 inches wide by 13 inches tall, all 256 pages are printed in full color... In this day and age, talented artists abound in the tattoo world. Tattoo Prodigies features the world's best tattoo artists with carefully selected, full-color galleries of impressive tattoo and painting accomplishments; as well as inspiring stories and interviews throughout.

Shading is one of the easiest ways of adding depth, contrast, character, and movement to your drawings. By controlling pencil pressure and stroke, understanding light and having knowledge of blending techniques, an artist can enhance their work and offer the “wow” factor needed to produce realistic artworks.