Dorothy Parker's Elbow

Previously considered the domain of bikers and a rite of passage in the services, tattoos have crawled from society's fringes and onto the ankles of starlets and the biceps of bankers. In this volume stories from writers including Herman Melville, Elizabeth McCracken, Ray Bradbury and Sylvia Plath capture and explore the full tattoo experience. The modern tattoo industry is as comfortable on the mall as on the docks, with today's tattoo parlour denizens likely to be folks who work 9-5 or teach economics at the local college, and this collection pulls us into that alluring world, capturing the mysterious fascination this practice has for us and defining the emotions and intensity attached to being tattooed.