No Regrets: The Best, Worst, & Most #$%*ing Ridiculous Tattoos Ever

by Aviva Yael (Author), P. M. Chen (Author), David Cross (Foreword)

Just published from the Hachette Book Group is NO REGRETS: THE BEST, WORST, & MOST #$%*ING RIDICULOUS TATTOOS EVER by authors Aviva Yael and P.M. Chen. According to the back cover copy, the book idea started out as a joke in a bar and then became a yearlong odyssey that had the two authors visiting tattoo conventions and tattoo studios in pursuit of the ultimate in ridiculous skin art. What they've compiled here they put forth as "the definitive guide to the funniest, most awesomely amazing tattoos on the planet."

Having been obsessed with tattooing since I was a teenager, I've been really curious to see this book, but having now read through it, I have to say it didn't present anything that really struck me as all that out of the ordinary compared to what I've seen in the last twenty years of looking at anything tattoo I could get my hands on. The book is primarily photos, with author-given captions below them. There's a mash of credits in the back of the book but thankfully the tattoo owners are left out of it, as really, the tattoos and comments are presented in a rather humiliating fashion, despite the author's assurances that they are "just kidding."

There's no organization to the photos, just one long smorgasbord of images. I think the book would have benefited from grouping the photos somewhat by type of placement. After all, it's not every tattoo book that could boast chapters of tattoos on butts, celebrity portraits, stoner tattoos or anatomically-correct cartoon characters all in one publication. The captions are meant to be witty little comments, but come off more like the insults thrown by teenagers who are trying to sound cool without coming right out and saying they think you're stupid. Think tattoo commentary as done by Beavis & Butthead's less intelligent cousins. There are tons of interesting stories in this book, it's just that that authors seem to have chosen to keep all that good stuff to themselves instead of sharing with the readers. Some of the images date back over at least a decade, and are things I've seen in other books or in tattoo magazines, and a good number of pictures are in circulation on the internet.

In fact, instead of spending $16.99 US/$18.99 CAN, you could probably find many more tattoos that are better, even worse or much more ridiculous on the internet for free. If you really want to get this book, wait for it to turn up on the discount table before you add it to your tattoo library.