Tattoo Magazines & Books

Tattoo magazines and books aren't cheap, so check out some of our favorite tattoo books and mags.

Magazines

Inked
http://www.inkedmag.com/
Inked Magazine is all about culture, style & art.

Skin & Ink
http://www.skinink.com/
Although you won't get a heaping helping of pictures in this periodical, you will get enough to satisfy your craving. Along with high quality photos, you will also be able to feed your mind with information and articles that deal with the historical and significant aspects of body art in society. It's a perfect blend of eye candy and meaty material.

Tattoo Flash
http://paisanopub.com/flash/
All pictures, NO ADS, all color. If you want flash and tattoo pictures, you will not be disappointed. This magazine is huge and packed full of both photos and drawings. You'll occasionally find some light reading about a particular artist or collector, but for the most part it is all art.

Skin Art
http://www.skinart.com/
Skin Art is a real "in your face" kind of magazine. The pictures are large, bold and colorful. They feature some excellent artists and are not afraid to showcase art on the dark or wild side. But you do have to shuffle through a lot of ads to get to the good stuff.

TATTOO
http://paisanopub.com/tattoo/
This magazine has been around for a long time and continues to meet the demands of its readers. They'll keep you up with who's who and what's hot, along with entertaining you with plenty of pictures and artist profiles.

Tattoo Savage
http://paisanopub.com/savage/
Wrapped in plastic and packaged like an adult magazine, you'd expect to find hard core modifications and pornographic photos. But it's actually put together very professionally and features some superb tattoo artistry. Some of the artwork may lean toward the bizarre side, but most issues I let my own kids look at.

Tattoo Revue
http://www.skinart.com/?q=catalog/3
While this magazine has sometimes been guilty of putting lousy art on their front cover just because the model was attractive, it's still a pretty good publication. With more color photos and convention coverage, it's an enjoyable publication to browse and read. Not a lot of substantial information or content, but good pictures and quality art.

International Tattoo Art
http://shop.internationaltattooart.com
Although this magazine is actually published right here in the U.S.A., it reaches out and gets a much more global feel of body art. You'll read about conventions overseas and all the wonderful artists on opposite ends of the Earth. The only problem with this magazine is their recent decision to take it upon themselves to censor their magazine by covering nipples and genitals of the collectors and the art.

Tattoos For Women
http://www.skinart.com/?q=catalog/4
Although this isn't a really dynamic magazine for it's content or pictures, I had to include it in my top picks list. The body art world is so male-dominated, I really appreciate the effort that goes into making this magazine just for women. The pictures are mostly submissions, so the photo quality is sometimes lacking, but the models and the art are as real as life. I'd call this the most "down to earth" body art publication.

Tattoo Artist Magazine
http://www.tattooartistmagazine.com/

Books

The Mammoth Book of Tattoos by Lal Hardy (2009)
http://www.amazon.com

The Mammoth Book of Tattoo Art by Lal Hardy (2011)
http://www.amazon.com