Cuentos de tatuajes

John Miller, the editor of this anthology, says that the irruption in 2011 of the Barbie Tattoos was the definitive sign that "tattooing had ceased to be a clear antisocial distinctive"; there remained, at most, "nostalgia for the old days when skin marking had the unmistakable force of weirdness." Rarities are, in fact, these fifteen Tales of tattoos (1882-1952) where the tattoo is associated with the criminal, the adventurous, the perverse, but also with art and love. Well-known authors such as Hjalmar Söderberg, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Saki, Heimito von Dederer, Egon Erwin Kisch and Roald Dahl live with other forgotten ones but who also saw in the tattoo an inspiring motif: a memory of a past that one wants to forget, a key secret, a mark of loyalty, an erotic symbol... Sometimes a curse, always a mystery, the tattoo gives rise to disturbing tales about identity, community, social rejection, mystical sentiment and perverse charm.