The Illustrated Woman

by William Demichele (Photographer)

A spectacular, (10.5x13") book of superb color portraits of women and their tattoos by DeMichele printed by Palace Press in Singapore. A unique book giving us a sight of some remarkable art rendered on a tough medium without, however, an insight into the lives, motivations, thinking of the decorated women pictured. Tattoos range from (few) paint-by-numbers clichTs to (mostly) very imaginative, dramatic, even aesthetic work. It will not languish uncirculated in any library. A paper edition (unseen) was released in fall 1993 at $35. Published by Proteus Press, 40 Broadway, Albany, NY 12202. Distributed by Publishers Group West. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Genres: Art

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Holly B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have about 30 books featuring tattoos and this is by far the loveliest. Demichele is a renown photographer and anyone with big ink owes it to him/herself to take a look at the images to see how graceful and elegant an inscribed body can be. The pictures are not prurient and he carefully (mostly) avoids the cliche pin up and sexy baby poses that are so annoying in many tattoo magazines. The book can be a guide for where to put big pieces and has examples of all the classics sized and tailored for a woman's frame. Confession-- when I was young I kept Illustrated Woman on my coffee table along with a couple of art books as a screening tool for whether or not someone would be dateable. If he picked it up with a sneer or yuck indicator he was out. If he leafed through the book thoughtfully without a leer or lascivious comment he was OK. When you're amply decorated it is amazing how tactless some people can be- even now- and it's best to know that about them sooner than later. Actually, if anything could convert a tattoo hater into someone who gets it-- it would be Bill Demichele's photographs.

[Naberius]

women,tattoo,tattooing