When people ask me where I learned so much about tattoos and body art, I have to answer that most of it was from books. Whether in pictures or words, books are one of the greatest resources in tattoo history. Many people who find internet searches frustration never think to let go of the mouse and head down to the local library.

I got my start researching tattoos in libraries, and now am proud to be the caretaker for a comprehensive body art book collection. Below is a listing of most of the tattoo and piercing publications that I own.

Tattoo & Body Art Non-Fiction

American Extremes by George Toomer Art, Sex and Symbol: the Mystery of Tattooing by R.W.B. Scutt and Christopher Gotch Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos by Samuel M. Steward Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo by Margot Mifflin Body Marks: Tattooing, Piercing and Scarification by Kathlyn Gay and Christine Whittington Body Packaging: A guide to human sexual display by Julian Robinson Body Styles by Ted Polhemus Bushido by Takahiro Kitamura and Katie M. Kitamura Customizing the Body: The Art and Culture of Tattooing by Clinton R. Sanders Dorothy Parker's Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos, edited by Kim Addonizio and Cheryl Demesnil Dragon Tattoo Design by D.E. Hardy Extreme Beauty: The Body Transformed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Incredible Collectors, Weird Antiques and Odd Hobbies by Bill Carmichael Japanese Tattooing Now by Michael McCabe	Marks of Civilization, edited by Arnold Rubin Mehndi: the art of henna body painting by Carine Fabius Modcon: the secret world of extreme body modification by Shannon Larratt Modern Primitives by Re/Search Punk and Neo-Tribal Body Art by Daniel Wojcik Pushing Ink: the fine art of tattooing by Spider Webb Return of the Tribal by Rufus C. Camphausen Rock of Ages by D. Ed Hardy Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia, drawings and foreward by Danzig Baldaev, photography by Sergei Vasiliev Skin Shows: the art of tattoo by Chris Wroblewski Skin Shows II: the art of tattoo by Chris Wroblewski Tattoo: the exotic art of skin decoration by Michelle Delio Tattoo: pigments of imagination by Chris Wroblewski Tattoo Book of Days compiled by Lyle Tuttle Tattoo History: a source book by Steve Gilbert	Tattoo, Torture, Mutilation, and Adornment: The Denaturalization of the Body in Culture and Text, edited by Frances E. Mascia-Lees and Patricia Sharpe Tattooed Women by Chris Wroblewski Tattooing A to Z by Huck Spaulding Tattoos: Coloring the Human Canvas by Armad Eisen Tattoos of The Floating World by Takahiro Kitamura The Art of the New Zealand Tattoo by Anne Nicholas The Body Decorated by Victoria Ebin The Customized Body by Ted Polhemus and Housk Randall The Decorated Body by Robert Brain The Japanese Tattoo by Donald Richie and Ian Buruma The New Tattoo by Victoria Lautman The Rock Star Tattoo Encyclopedia by Patricia Steur The Tattoo: Graffiti for the Soul by Catherine Grognard The Tattooists by Albert L. Morse Written on the Body: the Tattoo in European and American History, edited by Jane Caplan 7 Tattoos: a memoir in the flesh by Peter Trachtenberg 1000 Tattoos by Henk Schiffmacher