{"id":44746,"date":"2025-09-02T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=44746"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:14:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T18:14:40","slug":"tiki-style-an-unreliable-history-of-tattoos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/tiki-style-an-unreliable-history-of-tattoos\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiki Style \/ An Unreliable History of Tattoos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TIKI STYLE PACKS A BIG PUNCH FULL OF EVERYTHING UNDER THE TIKIDOM ROOF<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Tiki Style<\/em>
by Sven Kirsten
Taschen
2015, 192 pages, 4.9 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches (softcover)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This little pocket book packs a big punch full of tiki culture with flamboyant images and a fun history. The author Sven A. Kirsten is the go-to guy for everything tiki. He\u2019s the author of the Book of Tiki<\/a><\/em>, which this bite-sized edition pulls from. The book takes you through the origins of tiki in the South Pacific, explains how this island culture worked its way into mainstream Americana, and highlights some of the legends like Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something about Tikidom that\u2019s just fun. The mugs, the artwork, the cocktails \u2013 it\u2019s easy to get wrapped up in the tropical fantasy. Maybe it was growing up in grey and rainy Seattle that made me a sucker for tiki, but I can\u2019t get enough and this book delivers. It\u2019s filled cover to cover with photographs, illustrations, and incredible island imagery. So grab your favorite ceramic mug, pour yourself a Mai-Tai and enjoy this fantastic look at the stylish world of tiki. \u2013 JP LeRoux<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: If you already have <\/em>The Book of Tiki there won\u2019t be anything new for you here, but I\u2019d highly recommend picking up any of Sven\u2019s other tiki books if you want to learn even more about the culture.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SATIRIST PAUL THOMAS MIXES FICTION WITH FACTS IN AN UNRELIABLE HISTORY OF TATTOOS<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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An Unreliable History of Tattoos<\/em>
by Paul Thomas
Nobrow Press
2016, 96 pages, 7.9 x 10.6 x 0.7 inches (hardcover)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A minor celebrity\/reality star, whose name I can\u2019t remember, said in a recent interview that she thinks of people without tattoos as being \u201cunicorns\u201d because they are so rare. It\u2019s true that today tattoos are much more popular than when I was a kid. In my day, only sailors or criminals had dye permanently etched into their bodies, but according to the graphic novel, An Unreliable History of Tattoos<\/em>, inking people has been around since Day 1 (think Adam and Eve).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his first book, award-winning British political cartoonist Paul Thomas loosely traces the origins of body art. There\u2019s definitely a focus on European (and specifically British) history in this book, but Thomas also pokes fun at a few famous Americans. Mixing fiction with facts, (honestly sometimes it\u2019s hard to tell what\u2019s real and what\u2019s made up) this book is interesting, humorous, and very unusual!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know if the Upper Paleolithic man really punctured his skin with blunt twigs, nor do I know if King Harold II had his wife Edith\u2019s name tattooed on his chest way back in 1066. Should I believe Anne Boleyn\u2019s daughter, Princess Elizabeth, had her knuckles tattooed? Was Kings Charles II\u2019s chest covered in permanent ink with names of all his many bedroom conquests? According to this parody, Queen Victoria, Sir Winston Churchill, and even President Obama love body art too. An Unreliable History of Tattoos<\/em> also touches on Japanese, Greek, Roman and Viking ink. If any, or all, or some of the fun facts in An Unreliable History of Tattoos<\/em> are true, the thorny roses, tribal arm sleeves, and Mickey Mouse heads that show up on today\u2019s bodies are nothing compared to what came before them. \u2013 Carole Rosner<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Books That Belong On Paper<\/strong>\u00a0first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair.<\/em>\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get the issues a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Issue No. 82<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[31],"tags":[2398],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44766,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44746\/revisions\/44766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}