TATTOO: The Exotic Art of Skin Decoration...

TATTOO: The Exotic Art of Skin Decoration by Michelle Delio (St. Martin’s Press: $14.95; 79 pp., paperback original). As Delio is the editor of Skin Art Magazine, it’s no surprise that this breezy account of the current fad for tattoos has a gung-ho tone. Explanations of the various types of tattoos (e. g. the ones that look like barbed wire are tribal work ) are supplemented with photographs of people adorned with rattlesnakes, flowers, dragons and the names of rock bands. The text doesn’t mention that an icon of pop culture may quickly lose its desirability: If a previous generation had gone in for similar marks, would they still want The Bee-Gees and Devo on their arms?