The Craft of Tattooing

I honestly had hoped for more from this book. It boasts that this "easy to use and comprehensive guide will show you everything you need to know to get started as a Tattoo Artist." However, I felt it was really dumbed down for someone who has never even walked into a tattoo shop. If you are looking to going into the business, chances are you already know everything outlined in this book.The book is obviously self published as it contains many grammar and spelling mistakes. The type is much larger than need be, so once it arrives you are initially excited about how much information is going to be covered, but then open the cover and realize the text is about 14pt font and does not cover the entire page. Would be much more successful as a Kindle e-book. I purchased it at a reduced price and do NOT believe that it is worth anyone's hard working $25.If you are looking for an instructional book, a how-to tattoo, or even a starting your own tattoo shop book - keep on searching.I own other books that touch on the very same subjects in here - but go into much more depth. Tattoo is a lucrative business with tons of secrets. Needless to say - you are not going to learn everything from a book.This book has major potential, its just needs a major overhaul on the amount and quality of the content.Overall, it was an 'OK' short read.

Great book with good info, unfortunately it is filled with misspelled words and grammatical errors. Not sure who edited this book but they failed horribly. Words like "didn't" are spelled "dident", "repeatedly" spelled "repetedly", and almost no apostrophes in the entire book. This made it annoying and a bit frustrating, however the information in the book is excellent. If you can look past the terrible English (which is something I am still trying to do) then it will be a very helpful book.

I liked this book for a few reasons. It seemed to be written the way the author spoke with no attempts to sound anything more than he is which made it an easy book to read. He did not sugar coat or over complicate anything. It was easy to follow and comprehend. He also gave other good resources to check out What I did not like was that some things that i thought should be in the book were not and were referenced to other books. However its not my book. Overall it is a good book and well worth taking a look at.

I was pretty excited about getting this book as I was thinking about searching out an apprenticeship in the very near future. I was hoping this book would take some of the mystery out of the whole procedure and give some worthwhile tips about breaking into the trade. I was a little disappointed.I got very little information from this book, it has MASSIVE TEXT and gigantic margins, I thought I had bought a book for the visually impaired, but that just wouldn't make sense. I read this book in an hour... MAX... I skimmed back a couple of times to point out to my husband the terrible grammar, typos and the repetition of useless information.This book made me feel like even I would be able to write and publish a book (I'm not very literate), perhaps about something I was totally inexperienced in, perhaps it would be about table tennis techniques (I have never played table tennis). I would write it in less than a day, not proof read it and then charge $20 a pop for it.If you want to know about tattooing, instead of purchasing this book, I would suggest walking into a shop and interrupting the biggest, toughest looking artist (mid-tattoo) and bombarding him with questions until he punches you in the face. It's probably going to be a more informative (and less painful) learning experience for you.

I have never touched a tattoo machine. But after reading this book I feel more confident about how to handle it. Also, where and how to look for an apprenticeship. I'm glad that Erik took the time to write something that is going to be a great benefit to me. I still don't plan on doing any work until I read through it again and check over the notes that I have taken. I'm so glad that this is book is out there. He don't make you feel like crap because you are new to the tattoo game. He gives me the feeling that everyone has to start somewhere, even if it's reading a book. Thank you Erik. You're the best!

I bought this book since I'm learning to tattoo and since I'm a visual person it gives me something to look at and refer back to when my friend whose teaching me isn't around. I loved the conversational and casual tone that the author takes. I felt like it was literally a "master" saying "don't don't do, you'll f*** them up real bad", it was very easy to understand and very straight forward. A definite must read for anyone looking to get into tattooing who has very little or no prior knowledge of how it works! I finished this book in several hours and promptly ordered several more books that Erick Alayon has authored.

Very informative and written in a way that makes it very easy to read quite a bit at one time!

Very informal for any wanting to learn more about the art of tattooing. Book treats the reader like a beginning tattoo artist but includes knowledge for professionals. Very well written and well worth the price of the book. Highly recommend to anyone wanting to learn the fundamentals of tattooing or a professional wanting to further their knowledge of the craft. A++

The overall 'attitude' of the book is good and the author does not take himself too seriously - unlike FAR too many folks in the tattoo world. It is a pleasant read and is written in a refreshingly `blunt'(!) style.As for myself, I am not a tattooist but I have had an assortment of tattoos placed upon myself over the years. I am now seriously interested in learning how-to-tattoo. I am not looking at it as an employment route (since I already have a good job) but more as a hobby/pastime ... and to hopefully be able to add to my own personal tattoos.I have therefore read the Internet [articles] extensively and I have scoured eBay looking at all that is available. I wanted a sort of Dummies guide to beginning tattooing. This book falls very far short of that, unfortunately. This book barely scratches the surface (sorry, but I couldn't resist the pun). I do not read a lot of books - but I read every single word of this one, from cover to cover, in a little over an hour.For example, I would have liked to have known how to set a machine up; I am aware that there are different settings for liners and for shaders. This book doesn't give enough explanation of this ... I still don't know how to do it. One labelled picture of a tattoo machine was given - and far too little accompanying explanation. I felt that a step-by-step pictorial guide (e.g. like a car Haynes manual idea) would have been much better. No pictures of how deep to adjust the needles [depth of penetration] or of angle to hold machine to skin or whether to move forwards or backwards when drawing lines etc etc etc. I wasn't expecting to learn any advanced techniques from this book, but the very basics aren't covered sufficiently either! Like I said; it is a pleasant and fairly cheerful `overview' of how-to-tattoo [and nothing more] ... but you still need to buy a book that shows you how to (a) set machines up and (b) how to tattoo!Perhaps, in all fairness, the book DOES assume that you are an apprentice tattooist with an experienced mentor always on hand. The book often says things like ask your instructor to show you how to do this and ask your instructor about that. If I had access to an instructor then I wouldn't have needed to buy a flippin' book, methinks!Sorry, but whilst I DID admittedly pick up one or two [good] tips from this book, I personally needed a book that was designed as an instruction in its own right ... rather than this one which does constantly assume that you are working in a tattoo shop full of people that you can ask anything (and therefore don't actually need this book???).Furthermore, the spelling and grammar throughout are surprisingly poor for a printed book (surely he could have had someone proof read it for him). This is perhaps only a minor point since the book certainly isn't meant to be a guide to the correct use of English ... but it really does leave the book feeling somewhat `unprofessional' overall.Very sorry, but I cannot recommend this book to anyone. I gave it two stars because it was a pleasant read ... albeit a rather short and very uninformative one.So, unfortunately, I am still on the lookout for a useful beginner's guide to tattooing ... ... ...

Horrible. This book is so bad I don't know where to begin. The author claims to be a leading tattooist and yet show NO photographs of HIS actual work. Every page has a grammatical or spelling or syntax error. The photography is all black and white, badly lit, ill-concieved and insubstantial. It fails to illustrate the text, which attempts to illustrate basic principles but fails even to do this. His explanation of how to set-up a gun is patchy and confusing. A newcomer to the industry will learn nothing from this book.It's the exact opposite of what you need, it's condescending, confusing, patronizing and ultimately pitiful. Throw your money into the gutter rather than buy this.

Basic knowledge book on tattooing. It's ok. Quite a quick read as the text is fairly large inside

A basic book, the quality of paper and training could be improved.

Fantastic book, have read cover to cover a few times, covers everything apart from the new rotary tattoo machines but it was written in 2005 so that explains why!