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Musical Ink
Black and white portraits of 62 inked musicians and stories about their tattoos, including Dave Navarro, Chad Smith, Kat Von D, Sammy Hagar, and more.
This exciting volume of imagery from Toronto-based photographer Jon Blackernot only has something for every musical taste – featured artists range in genre from heavy metal to hip hop and opera – the tattoo styles include elaborate sleeves, creative one points, and traditional Japanese themes.
Each portrait is photographed in black and white using a special infrared camera, which allows the tattoos to truly stand out from the skin because while infrared light largely reflects off of skin, it is absorbed by the tattoo ink, creating a great deal of contrast between the almost glowing, ethereal appearance of the skin and the deep blacks and greys of the tattoos.
But Musical Ink goes more than skin deep and focuses on the personal meanings of the artists’ body art, be it a deep personal reflection or simply a great funny story. This outstanding collection of images, including artists like Dave Navarro, Chad Smith, and Sammy Hagar, is ideal for music lovers, tattoo aficionados and artists, and photographers.
This exciting volume of imagery from Toronto-based photographer Jon Blackernot only has something for every musical taste – featured artists range in genre from heavy metal to hip hop and opera – the tattoo styles include elaborate sleeves, creative one points, and traditional Japanese themes.
Each portrait is photographed in black and white using a special infrared camera, which allows the tattoos to truly stand out from the skin because while infrared light largely reflects off of skin, it is absorbed by the tattoo ink, creating a great deal of contrast between the almost glowing, ethereal appearance of the skin and the deep blacks and greys of the tattoos.
But Musical Ink goes more than skin deep and focuses on the personal meanings of the artists’ body art, be it a deep personal reflection or simply a great funny story. This outstanding collection of images, including artists like Dave Navarro, Chad Smith, and Sammy Hagar, is ideal for music lovers, tattoo aficionados and artists, and photographers.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published June 28, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 7, 2013
Let me start this review with saying that I'm your typical, middle-aged father, politically conservative, and (per my kid's perceptions) somewhat puritanical.
I'm generally (generally = 99% of the time) not a fan of skin ink, or other body alterations. I'm one of those guys who wonders why a stunningly beautiful girl turns around to show an arm that is one solid tattoo, or having some crazy symbol like a skull inked onto her neck. I'm the same guy who wonders why a handsome young man has holes gauged in his ears the size of a half-dollar. I want to ask him if, on a windy day, he turns just the right way, do his ear lobes whistle?
All kidding aside, while I don't necessarily "like" tattoos of any size or stripe, I'm intrigued by our post-modern society's penchant for any type of body alteration. What drives those choices? I've heard many say that once they got their first ink, they became addicted. I find it utterly fascinating.
This fascination is what caused me to look at Blacker's "Musical Ink". For, within the covers, there are hundreds of black and white photos of primarily rock musicians and their body art. Along with them are the stories. The stories of why they got a tattoo honoring a person in their life, or honoring a significant event in their life. It seems a way for them to permanently etch those important people, places, and events in their lives into a daily reminder. While making a statement that is quite fashionable these days.
While intrigued with the stories, I was more intrigued by the stunning photography. All pictures were done in black and white, but with an incredible depth and texture reminiscent of the black and white nature pictures of early 20th century master photographer Ansel Adams.
At the very end of the book, we get a short overview of how these pictures were created. Photographer Blacker used special equipment to capture the near infrared (IR) light spectrum. The author states: "Generally IR light interacts differently than visible light with skin and tattoo ink. IR wavelengths do not penetrate skin very deeply and give it a milky, ethereal appearance, while tattoo ink absorbs the IR wavelengths, rendering a much higher contrast between the skin and the ink. It's this effect that makes these portraits unique and allows you to see these artists in a whole new light."
The photos are captivating, both as cultural statements, and works of art, and I think this book will appeal to students of both. If tattoos and body art are your thing, I do recommend this to be your next coffee table book.
I received an e-copy of this book as an ARC from the publisher. It came with the expectation of a fair and honest review. There are no personal nor professional ties between the publisher, the author, or this reviewer.
This review will be posted on NetGalley.com; Goodreads.com; my blog: JonReviewsBooks1.Wordpress.com; and will be posted on Amazon.com after the publishing date.
I'm generally (generally = 99% of the time) not a fan of skin ink, or other body alterations. I'm one of those guys who wonders why a stunningly beautiful girl turns around to show an arm that is one solid tattoo, or having some crazy symbol like a skull inked onto her neck. I'm the same guy who wonders why a handsome young man has holes gauged in his ears the size of a half-dollar. I want to ask him if, on a windy day, he turns just the right way, do his ear lobes whistle?
All kidding aside, while I don't necessarily "like" tattoos of any size or stripe, I'm intrigued by our post-modern society's penchant for any type of body alteration. What drives those choices? I've heard many say that once they got their first ink, they became addicted. I find it utterly fascinating.
This fascination is what caused me to look at Blacker's "Musical Ink". For, within the covers, there are hundreds of black and white photos of primarily rock musicians and their body art. Along with them are the stories. The stories of why they got a tattoo honoring a person in their life, or honoring a significant event in their life. It seems a way for them to permanently etch those important people, places, and events in their lives into a daily reminder. While making a statement that is quite fashionable these days.
While intrigued with the stories, I was more intrigued by the stunning photography. All pictures were done in black and white, but with an incredible depth and texture reminiscent of the black and white nature pictures of early 20th century master photographer Ansel Adams.
At the very end of the book, we get a short overview of how these pictures were created. Photographer Blacker used special equipment to capture the near infrared (IR) light spectrum. The author states: "Generally IR light interacts differently than visible light with skin and tattoo ink. IR wavelengths do not penetrate skin very deeply and give it a milky, ethereal appearance, while tattoo ink absorbs the IR wavelengths, rendering a much higher contrast between the skin and the ink. It's this effect that makes these portraits unique and allows you to see these artists in a whole new light."
The photos are captivating, both as cultural statements, and works of art, and I think this book will appeal to students of both. If tattoos and body art are your thing, I do recommend this to be your next coffee table book.
I received an e-copy of this book as an ARC from the publisher. It came with the expectation of a fair and honest review. There are no personal nor professional ties between the publisher, the author, or this reviewer.
This review will be posted on NetGalley.com; Goodreads.com; my blog: JonReviewsBooks1.Wordpress.com; and will be posted on Amazon.com after the publishing date.
June 8, 2013
I received an electronic review copy of this book from the publisher on NetGalley. I might come back and edit my review after I see the print version, but for now, know that all of these commets refer to the not-yet-published e-book version.
The author/photographer took pictures of musicians and pictures of their tattoos. Then he collected one story from each musician about his favorite/most important tattoo.
I was really disappointed in this book. I love music, and I love tattoos, so you'd think it would be an excellent combination. But, instead of combining peanut butter and chocolate, this was more like combining ham and ice cream. By that, I mean it was not great. The photographer decided to use infrared photography to make the tattoos contrast with the skin. Unfortunately, in the e-book, this just comes off as blurry, pixel-y, weirdly exposed black and white pictures, and it gives everyone devil eyes.
The layout of the book was displeasing to me. It's a two-page spread design, meant to be seen two pages at a time. the page on the left is a photograph of the subject. Sometimes his tattoos are exposed, sometimes they're completely covered, but mostly, they're just look-straight-ahead-at-the camera-and-kind-of-grimace shots. They kind of look like awkward senior portraits. The page on the right has a picture of the featured tattoo with the story about it.
Then, there's the actual text of the book. We start off with a yawn-inducing interview with Kat Von D. Then, each musician's story is a weird, rambling, grammatically and structurally sloppy paragraph-or-so. I realize a uniformity in text throughout the book would be contrary to the theme of Rock-n-Roll, but some sort of structure is really necessary to smoothly tie the book together as a single work, rather than being a bunch of separate little pictures and stories.
My final complaint is something that was done in an effort, I presume, to protect the artistic integrity and the photographer's design concept of the work. As previously mentioned, each two-page spread has two photographs and a story. These are accompanied simply by the name of the musician. I think this leaves the reader with a huge lack of context for the artists throughout the book. It makes a big difference knowing that the lady with a treble clef tattoo is a renowned soprano Opera singer. It is not until the very last few pages of the book where we are given a yearbook-looking spread with rows of head shots of the musicians, with their names, specialties, and bands listed below.
I am sure a lot of my complaints would actually be nulled out with the print version of the book, so, again, I might come back and revise my review after I see it!
The author/photographer took pictures of musicians and pictures of their tattoos. Then he collected one story from each musician about his favorite/most important tattoo.
I was really disappointed in this book. I love music, and I love tattoos, so you'd think it would be an excellent combination. But, instead of combining peanut butter and chocolate, this was more like combining ham and ice cream. By that, I mean it was not great. The photographer decided to use infrared photography to make the tattoos contrast with the skin. Unfortunately, in the e-book, this just comes off as blurry, pixel-y, weirdly exposed black and white pictures, and it gives everyone devil eyes.
The layout of the book was displeasing to me. It's a two-page spread design, meant to be seen two pages at a time. the page on the left is a photograph of the subject. Sometimes his tattoos are exposed, sometimes they're completely covered, but mostly, they're just look-straight-ahead-at-the camera-and-kind-of-grimace shots. They kind of look like awkward senior portraits. The page on the right has a picture of the featured tattoo with the story about it.
Then, there's the actual text of the book. We start off with a yawn-inducing interview with Kat Von D. Then, each musician's story is a weird, rambling, grammatically and structurally sloppy paragraph-or-so. I realize a uniformity in text throughout the book would be contrary to the theme of Rock-n-Roll, but some sort of structure is really necessary to smoothly tie the book together as a single work, rather than being a bunch of separate little pictures and stories.
My final complaint is something that was done in an effort, I presume, to protect the artistic integrity and the photographer's design concept of the work. As previously mentioned, each two-page spread has two photographs and a story. These are accompanied simply by the name of the musician. I think this leaves the reader with a huge lack of context for the artists throughout the book. It makes a big difference knowing that the lady with a treble clef tattoo is a renowned soprano Opera singer. It is not until the very last few pages of the book where we are given a yearbook-looking spread with rows of head shots of the musicians, with their names, specialties, and bands listed below.
I am sure a lot of my complaints would actually be nulled out with the print version of the book, so, again, I might come back and revise my review after I see it!
June 24, 2013
I don't normally review art related books but when Musical Ink, a photography book featuring musicians and their tattoos, became available on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to review it. Why? For a couple of reasons. (1) I am a huge fan of music; it has gotten me through hard times, inspired me when I needed it, and even turned me on to body art many years ago (2) I've been collecting tattoos for the past 18 years.
I love tattoo magazines and books on tattoos. Occasionally you'll find articles and/or interviews with musicians about their tattoos in general but it isn't often that you find a book where the musician picks what he or she wants to share with the world. I'm glad that Jon Blacker went on this quest to highlight musicians and their art.
Everyone has their reasons for wanting (or not wanting) to get tattooed. For me it started in my early teens when I was listening to bands like Alice in Chains, Guns N' Roses, and Skid Row. Those guys had ink and I wanted a tattoo so bad I couldn't stand it. As soon as I turned 18, I went to the tattoo shop and got my first tattoo. Ironically it was a small daisy on my ankle in honor of the alternative rock band I was in at the time called Pushing Up Daisies. The band didn't last long but the tattoo remains even after 18 years as a reminder of that time of my life. That isn't the only music inspired tattoo I have. Like I said, music inspires everything.
Jon Blacker is a great photographer and I enjoyed this book. I will say that I wasn't familiar with a lot of the musicians but the ones I did know (John 5, Matt Tuck, Max Cavalera, Dez FaFara, Chino Moreno, and Corey Taylor) made me squee!! It's nice to get a glimpse inside those guys head's in regard to the remarkable ink they've acquired over the years.
The tattoo that stood out the most for me was the piece Dez FaFara (of Coal Chamber) got at Ozzfest the year that one of my all-time favorite bands, Snot, played. They both got similar tattoos backstage by the phenomenal Paul Booth and it was Dez's pick because it had the most meaning. Not long after that Lynn Strait, the lead singer of Snot, was killed in a tragic car accident.
The little interview with Kat Von D at the beginning of the book was an added treat as she is one hell of a tattooer. The only downside to reviewing Musical Ink is getting a digital copy. While it was easy to view, it's doesn't look as pretty-and-glossy as it will in print. I may have to pick up a copy just to flip through it and get a better look at the pictures. Musical Ink would make a fantastic coffee table book and in turn would make one hell of a conversation piece. I give Musical Ink 4 stars.
*eARC PROVIDED BY SCHIFFER PUBLISHING VIA NETGALLEY*
I love tattoo magazines and books on tattoos. Occasionally you'll find articles and/or interviews with musicians about their tattoos in general but it isn't often that you find a book where the musician picks what he or she wants to share with the world. I'm glad that Jon Blacker went on this quest to highlight musicians and their art.
Everyone has their reasons for wanting (or not wanting) to get tattooed. For me it started in my early teens when I was listening to bands like Alice in Chains, Guns N' Roses, and Skid Row. Those guys had ink and I wanted a tattoo so bad I couldn't stand it. As soon as I turned 18, I went to the tattoo shop and got my first tattoo. Ironically it was a small daisy on my ankle in honor of the alternative rock band I was in at the time called Pushing Up Daisies. The band didn't last long but the tattoo remains even after 18 years as a reminder of that time of my life. That isn't the only music inspired tattoo I have. Like I said, music inspires everything.
Jon Blacker is a great photographer and I enjoyed this book. I will say that I wasn't familiar with a lot of the musicians but the ones I did know (John 5, Matt Tuck, Max Cavalera, Dez FaFara, Chino Moreno, and Corey Taylor) made me squee!! It's nice to get a glimpse inside those guys head's in regard to the remarkable ink they've acquired over the years.
The tattoo that stood out the most for me was the piece Dez FaFara (of Coal Chamber) got at Ozzfest the year that one of my all-time favorite bands, Snot, played. They both got similar tattoos backstage by the phenomenal Paul Booth and it was Dez's pick because it had the most meaning. Not long after that Lynn Strait, the lead singer of Snot, was killed in a tragic car accident.
The little interview with Kat Von D at the beginning of the book was an added treat as she is one hell of a tattooer. The only downside to reviewing Musical Ink is getting a digital copy. While it was easy to view, it's doesn't look as pretty-and-glossy as it will in print. I may have to pick up a copy just to flip through it and get a better look at the pictures. Musical Ink would make a fantastic coffee table book and in turn would make one hell of a conversation piece. I give Musical Ink 4 stars.
*eARC PROVIDED BY SCHIFFER PUBLISHING VIA NETGALLEY*
June 3, 2013
The first thing I'd like to say is that my rating is 2.5. I was so desperately hoping to be approved for this title, as the idea sounded amazing. I was jumping with joy almost literally when I got the coveted approval from NetGalley, but sadly the book itself left me quite underwhelmed. The photos are rather good, and the choice of infra-red is very interesting and original, but I felt that occasionally the tattoos weren't shown to their best advantage - for example, a chest tattoo was obscured by hanging pendants - and the decision to only credit the musicians with their names was a downer for me as well. I do love my rock and metal, but I don't know the names of all musicians, and I really would have liked the format to be 'name, band'. Yes, right at the very end we do get all the bands, but by that time it's too late, in my opinion. Another issue I had was actually with the choice of black & white. It worked well, don't get me wrong, and I'm usually quite a fan of it myself, but there were times the musician mentioned the colours of the chosen tattoo, and I would be thinking, "Wish I could see them," but alas, all I got was the monochrome image. I do understand the reason for that decision, I really do, but I still wish the colour tattoos were shown in, well, colour.
Last, but not least, I have to mention that there were some grammar mistakes, which I sincerely hope will be sorted out in the final version, like 'it's' instead of 'its', 's for plural possessive instead of s' and there was one occasion where I spotted 'may arm' instead of 'my arm'. As I presume that I got an unedited ARC, I wasn't sure if I should say anything about them, but seeing as it was an issue for me while reading it, and I haven't noticed it being so prominent in other ARCs I've read, I decided to include a mention.
To wrap up, I think Musical Ink would be an interesting read for rock, metal and tattoo fans, but it didn't quite work for me. I'm quite sad about it, but I honestly tried hard and still failed to keep my initial enthusiasm.
Last, but not least, I have to mention that there were some grammar mistakes, which I sincerely hope will be sorted out in the final version, like 'it's' instead of 'its', 's for plural possessive instead of s' and there was one occasion where I spotted 'may arm' instead of 'my arm'. As I presume that I got an unedited ARC, I wasn't sure if I should say anything about them, but seeing as it was an issue for me while reading it, and I haven't noticed it being so prominent in other ARCs I've read, I decided to include a mention.
To wrap up, I think Musical Ink would be an interesting read for rock, metal and tattoo fans, but it didn't quite work for me. I'm quite sad about it, but I honestly tried hard and still failed to keep my initial enthusiasm.
June 17, 2013
Musical Ink is a spectacular once in a lifetime look into the tattoos that make the musicians in our modern world and their reasons behind the ink. I really found the introduction to the book to be very interesting.
Did you know that in 2008, more than 43 million people in the United States has at least one tattoo (Blacker, J., 2013, pg. 5)? By that time, I had all three of mine.
After the introduction, Mr. Blacker sits down and interviews Kat Von D.
The entire book is entertaining. Each page has a photo of the musical artist and some photos include the tattoo being displayed and other times it's the artist in whatever pose and the tattoo may not be visible. Each artist chooses a tattoo to focus on so we get a close up image of the tattoo and the history behind it. Some tattoos have very personal meaning, some not so much. There is one that is showcased that was gotten by the artist because he was told by other band members that t-shirts displaying the design were a no-go. He chose a tattoo to get around the obstacle.
The imagery along with the stories bring another level of depth to these works-of-art. While mine don't have stories or meanings, a good majority of them in this book have reasons and meaning behind them. If you love music, bad boys or bad girls, and tattoos then this book is a must see!
Plus, the last few pages of the book have head shots of each artist featured, their name and band/orchestra information, and the date of the photo. This was especially helpful to me because even though I knew who a lot of the featured artists were, I didn't know them all.
ARC ecopy received, at no cost, from Schiffer Publishing via NegGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
(There is more information about 2 of my tattoos that I included in the blog post but not here on Goodreads) http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/201...
Did you know that in 2008, more than 43 million people in the United States has at least one tattoo (Blacker, J., 2013, pg. 5)? By that time, I had all three of mine.
After the introduction, Mr. Blacker sits down and interviews Kat Von D.
The entire book is entertaining. Each page has a photo of the musical artist and some photos include the tattoo being displayed and other times it's the artist in whatever pose and the tattoo may not be visible. Each artist chooses a tattoo to focus on so we get a close up image of the tattoo and the history behind it. Some tattoos have very personal meaning, some not so much. There is one that is showcased that was gotten by the artist because he was told by other band members that t-shirts displaying the design were a no-go. He chose a tattoo to get around the obstacle.
The imagery along with the stories bring another level of depth to these works-of-art. While mine don't have stories or meanings, a good majority of them in this book have reasons and meaning behind them. If you love music, bad boys or bad girls, and tattoos then this book is a must see!
Plus, the last few pages of the book have head shots of each artist featured, their name and band/orchestra information, and the date of the photo. This was especially helpful to me because even though I knew who a lot of the featured artists were, I didn't know them all.
ARC ecopy received, at no cost, from Schiffer Publishing via NegGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
(There is more information about 2 of my tattoos that I included in the blog post but not here on Goodreads) http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/201...
June 22, 2013
As a fan of tattoos and of pretty much any musical genre I can get my hands on to, I was very eager to read through this.
I'm not really sure of all the bad reviews this book has gotten, I really liked it. The photographs are very well short, although there was a couple that let the book down slightly because some of the tattoo itself was obscured.
For the full review of this superb book please check it out on my site at the following link.
http://curiosityofasocialmisfit.blogs...
I'm not really sure of all the bad reviews this book has gotten, I really liked it. The photographs are very well short, although there was a couple that let the book down slightly because some of the tattoo itself was obscured.
For the full review of this superb book please check it out on my site at the following link.
http://curiosityofasocialmisfit.blogs...
June 22, 2013
This book is a coffee table style book that will be a great conversation piece. Now matter if you are tattooed or not, you will love this book. The photographer interviewed and took pictures of musician’s tattoos. The musicians are not just heavy metal as you would think; this book contains every musical genre from opera to rockabilly.
To see the rest of this review go to www.bsreviewers.blogspot.com
To see the rest of this review go to www.bsreviewers.blogspot.com
August 11, 2013
Actually, I would rate this 4.5, but you know GoodReads, no fractions here. Anyhow, read my full review on my blog at the link: http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.co...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews