Hi! + Question about tattoo books & Yellow Beak Press ("Lost Love")

[HeretoLearn]

Hi everyone,

I hope that I can go ahead and post this here, as it's a bit time-sensitive & I didn't realize how many posts I would need to make before I can participate in other parts of the forum. :)

I’m looking into getting a tattoo-related book as a gift for my friend. He likes American traditional tattoos. I think tattoos are awesome, but I’m currently a bit ignorant about most everything tattoo-related (besides what I learn from him), so I’d be most grateful for your help. ;)

I’m not sure exactly which books my friend already has right now (and I didn’t want to ask him, since I don’t want to tip him off about my plan). I want to get something special, but maybe a bit more obscure and not something easily found at your average bookstore or that pops up right away on Amazon.

I’ve been looking at the Yellow Beak Press books, specifically Lost Love and Lost Love Vol. 2. Does anyone have either of these books? Would you recommend them/one over the other?

Also, which is your favorite tattoo-related book, and do you have any suggestions for me?

Thank you so much!

[Graeme]

Welcome!  I don't have either of the Lost Love books but I've heard nothing but excellent things about them, and from what I've seen of Yellow Beak's other publications it's all first rate stuff.  Your friend will be extremely psyched on getting that as a gift.  I'd also recommend the Tattootime set published by Hardy Marks if your friend doesn't have it, because it's one of the best things ever published about tattoos, but you won't go wrong with Lost Love either.

[zetroc]

I have both of the Lost Love books and they're great ways to learn some of tattooing's long and varied history. They're also really nicely put together. I'd also recommend the books put out by Isaac Starr and LLL Books (The Rose Book, The Skull Book, The Girl Book, and The Cat Book) since each has a different lineup of artists and you get to see a lot of different styles. 

[HeretoLearn]

22 hours ago, Graeme said:

Welcome!  I don't have either of the Lost Love books but I've heard nothing but excellent things about them, and from what I've seen of Yellow Beak's other publications it's all first rate stuff.  Your friend will be extremely psyched on getting that as a gift.  I'd also recommend the Tattootime set published by Hardy Marks if your friend doesn't have it, because it's one of the best things ever published about tattoos, but you won't go wrong with Lost Love either.

Thank you so much for such a kind and helpful response. I'm very grateful for your Tattootime suggestion. I hadn’t come upon it previously and it definitely looks like an amazing option that contains a wealth of information and content.

If I don’t end up getting Tattootime now, I’d definitely like to see about purchasing it in the future (and looking over it myself before I give to my friend — it seems incredibly interesting & impressive!). Thank you once again, you’ve been a huge help to me.

10 hours ago, zetroc said:

I have both of the Lost Love books and they're great ways to learn some of tattooing's long and varied history. They're also really nicely put together. I'd also recommend the books put out by Isaac Starr and LLL Books (The Rose Book, The Skull Book, The Girl Book, and The Cat Book) since each has a different lineup of artists and you get to see a lot of different styles. 

Hello & thank you very much! I really appreciate your input. If you don’t mind, I’m going to ask you a few more questions about the Lost Love books, since you have them. :)

If I’m just purchasing one of them, would it be best to start off with the first volume, or for any reason would you suggest the second volume instead?

I read a blog post about Lost Love (the first volume) that said, “Scott and Kayla present the flash sheets along with archival photos, newspaper clippings and ephemera that influenced what went on to be classic designs and very little in the way of text.” So am I correct in understanding that it’s mostly made up of flash/photographs and the informational parts are generally conveyed through images of relevant documents, rather than typical book text?

I’ve been looking into the books you mentioned by Isaac Starr and LLL Books — they also seem like really cool choices! Thank you so much for the recommendation; I definitely think that those could be a lot of fun too.

Edited May 1, 2017 by HeretoLearn

[Gingerninja]

There is also a new book called Cor Mysterium put out by Neversleep Publishing. It's all about tattoo symbolism with original works and descriptions for each piece. Excellent quality, too.

Good luck!

 

[zetroc]

Both of the Lost Love books are really neat. The first book focuses on images up to the 1960s, while the second book adds images from the 1970s through the 1980s. Both books are a mix of flash sheets, newspaper articles, photos of peoples' tattoos, and tattoo-related artifacts like acetate stencils and business cards. It's really neat to see that while some images have fallen out of style, others have endured and are still being tattooed today just like they were decades ago. 

I don't think it would necessarily be bad to buy your friend Book 2 ahead of Book 1, since there isn't a narrative to get confused by - they're both simply collections of images. 

 

Edited May 3, 2017 by zetroc

[Devious6]

Great advice here - and welcome to the forum!!

[eisen7979]

On 5/1/2017 at 5:40 PM, Gingerninja said:

There is also a new book called Cor Mysterium put out by Neversleep Publishing. It's all about tattoo symbolism with original works and descriptions for each piece. Excellent quality, too.

Good luck!

 

I am familiar with the Cor Mysterium book and highly recommend it!!

[HeretoLearn]

Hi again! Thank you all very much for being so nice to me. I really appreciate your time and suggestions. You've all been really helpful & informative!

Update for @zetroc & @Graeme: Last week, I decided to go ahead and buy Lost Love, and I'm very excited to look over it myself before I wrap it! I was considering either Lost Love or Tattootime, but I think that if my friend did happen to have one of them, it would be more likely that he has Tattootime (either the full set or individual magazines). However, I'd really like to see about Tattootime as a future option if he doesn't.

Also, thank you to @Gingerninja and @eisen7979 for recommending Cor Mysterium! Unfortunately, it is out of my price range, but it does look awesome... maybe one day!

@Devious6 -- Thank you for welcoming me! I have to admit that I joined this forum primarily to get some guidance with my friend's gift, but I've really enjoyed my time here (I've looked over various other topics & posts as well, and I love going through pages & pages of everyone's tattoos), so I might stick around... I'm interested in potentially getting a tattoo myself one day, and I'd like to do plenty of research first and educate myself accordingly!

A big thank you to everyone once again; it was so great to have you be a part of this with me. :)

[Tom Denoye]

This post is from a while ago but I was cruising eBay and saw this really good deal for this rare bundle. Pretty good deal for the combination

www.ebay.com/itm/113317563086