On my desk right now: galleys for Jocelynn Drake’s Angel’s Ink (urban fantasy with magical tattoos, October), Sabrina Vourvoulias’s Ink (dystopian future SF with bar code tattoos, October), and Damien Grintalis’s Ink (horror with a tattoo that comes to life, December). Fascinating to see such very different takes on tattoos with such similar titles! Why are tattoos hot just now? Did we see so many of them on urban fantasy covers that they’ve become part of the canon without ever appearing in text? Was everyone inspired by the magical markings in books like Cat Valente’s Palimpsest and Harry Connolly’s Twenty Palaces novels? Or does the repeated use of “ink” hint that this is more about notions of permanence, ownership of the body (or, in Grintalis’s case, its betrayal), and self-expression?
Rose–a very interesting question! Tattoos play an important role in my Taker series (the villain marks his favorite companions with a special tattoo while he himself bears a different one, and he knows neither the meaning nor the origin of it) and it’s definitely about ownership of the body, but also about claiming ownership to someone else. The idea came from a personal incident that happened long ago, an old boyfriend and a misguided effort to win me back by tattooing my name on his arm. To name something is often a form of ownership–though not in this case.
I think it works in cycles, much like tattoo trends themselves. I’m just reminded of a guy I knew who used to hang out at the shop where I got my own ink, absolutely fascinated by Joe Lansdale’s descriptions of the tattoos on the Popcorn King in The Drive-In, who went for a few of those himself just because the book fascinated him that much.
Not that I recommend them, exactly, but there are also PC & Kristin Cast’s YA vampire books, House of the Night, where vampires are magically marked with tattoo like decorations. The series started in 2007.
Submitted by fans since “Kushiel’s Dart” came out in 2001: http://www.jacquelinecarey.com/gallery_tats.htm
In the text, tattoos have significance on a number of levels, including ownership of the body. I’m just sayin’… :)
I’m sorry, but I’ve been turned off to tats since a friend in my space cowboy days of the 70′s showed me a new one that was misspelled…(I was tripping on acid at the time, which made it a permanent imprint) Fortunately, I’ve been happily married for the last 20-odd years because I’d be telling all the girls these days, “Honey, I’m so not putting my mouth on that…” Cigar-smoking yuppies with greasy hair were bad enough in the 80′s, but you can always wash your hair and stop smoking, but trailer-park fashion statements tend to last forever…And Conan the Barbarian and Bilbo Baggins didn’t have tats-doubly so for Snow White!
Tats are a confirmaton of how far pop-culture has plummeted in the last 30 years; it’s a free country and all, but when everyone tries to look like they just off the carny midway it’s a sign that we need to get our cool generators adjusted…
I’m at the tail-end of a generation which equates tattoos with concentration camps.
Nice on other people, but not for me. Also not good if you want a job in corporate America. Get one where it won’t show.
There’s Ink and then there’s the stupid little words and symbols that teenagers are putting all over their bodies!
The ‘trend’ amongst young people today is to have as many little tattoo’s as possible on your hands, arms, legs, ankles, neck, behind the ear etc.
Its out of control and kind of sad…
I’m astonished to see all the negative comments here about tattoos; I had no idea so many people still viewed them that way. I really don’t understand judging someone for what they decide to do to their own body.
Another very relevant work (a couple years old at this point) is Mieville’s The Kraken–very much a book about both magic ink and animate tattoos.