Tattooing the World: Pacific Designs in Print and Skin

Juniper Ellis

Paper, 304 pages, 24 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-14369-1
$27.50

March, 2008
Cloth, 304 pages, 24 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-14368-4
$79.50 / £55.00

"This fascinating book traces the culture and literature surrounding the curious art that uses skin as a canvas." — Billy Heller, New York Post

"[A] scholarly and beautifully written book." — Cahir O’Doherty, Irish Voice

"Best New Book by a Local Author" — Baltimore City Paper

"Richly layered and meticulously researched" — Vivienne Muller, M/C Reviews

"This brilliant, wide-ranging study deserves careful reading." — Pacific Affairs

"Tattooing the World is a rich book that explores tattoo as an indigenous form of representation and expression of subjectivity, delving into the complexities of signification and belonging, visual literacy, and contextual understandings of identity formation. The work offers a critical analysis of the politics of display and cultural appropriation, as well as violent extrapolations of tattoo from its original sources, while carefully reading the new forms as they mark new meanings." — J. Kehaulani Kauanui, associate professor of anthropology and American studies, Wesleyan University

Related Subjects

• Anthropology
• Literary Criticism and Theory

About the Author

Juniper Ellis is an associate professor of English at Loyola College in Maryland, teaching Maori, Pacific Islands, and US literature. Her research for this book was made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

top of page