Review: Expressing the Inner Wild

Title: Expressing the Inner Wild: Tattoos, Piercings, Jewelry, and Other Body Art
Author: Stephen G. Gordon
Format: egalley
Pub. Date: January 1 2014
Source: Netgalley

★★

Two stars.

I saw the striking cover of this book, and then I read the name, and I knew this was a book that I'd have to read. I'm no stranger to piercings, having had eight over the course of my 21 years so far. And, though I haven't gotten any tattoos, I adore them (and my girlfriend has a few too). I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but I know that I was left wanting a more thorough book.

This book aims to teach a history of sorts of how certain "modern" fashions started, and to illustrate that they're not really modern at all. Things like gauges, scarrification, tattoos, and even crazy hair styles. These brief histories were interesting, but I felt that they were really vague: too little information was given. I'd love to read a more extensive history, but because the history was brought around in little shallow segments, I was left with a lot of little tidbits but no vital information.

This book uses pop culture to convey fashions and trends in body art and modifications, which makes complete sense. Rock stars have been getting inked for decades, and for reasons that baffle me Lady Gaga's wardrobe is always at the heart of buzzing on news sites and gossip sites alike. However, I felt that this book had a bit of a passe vibe to it, like someone's parent was trying to tell me about why I like what I like. It was weird and I got a bit rebellious towards the idea, like "No, that's NOT why I do that!"

The pages are full of color and pictures, which made it an easy to read collection, but it came across more like a few pages of a teen magazine than a stand alone publication. I'd flip through this on my way to reading about other things, but I was disappointed overall by what this book had to say.

Thanks to Netgalley for the chance to read this.