This lavishly illustrated account of the vanishing art of women's tribal tattooing is the record of tattoo anthropologist Lars Krutak's ten-year research with indigenous peoples around the globe. Spanning five continents, The Tattooing Arts of Tribal Women explores the personal and collective acts of human transformation through the tradition of indelible marking among indigenous peoples, past and present.

Throughout history, women have tattooed living skin to beautify, heal, empower, or carry the body into the afterlife. And as tattoo bearers were participants in shared pain and recuperation, the skin was the location where identity and experience met. Tattoo anchored indigenous values on the skin by creating a living canvas rooted in traditional practice. As ritual, tattooing re-enacted myth: it imitated the actions of the gods and ancestors who sacrificed their own skins to make them more lasting and sacred.

With 260 colour and b&w illustrations, The Tattooing Arts of Tribal Women not only examines the history and significance of tattooing through a comparative study of tattoo patterns and techniques, but also through interviews with the indigenous people who created them. The result is a comprehensive overview that establishes new ways of seeing and reading the messages encoded in ancient and more contemporary forms of tattooing through an exploration of these traditions worldwide.

The author is the presenter of the Discovery Channel series Tattoo Hunter focusing on indigenous body modification practices worldwide.

– 288 pages with 260 illustrations in black & white and colour
Published by Bennett & Bloom in association with Desert Hearts, 2007