From the New York Times bestselling author of Healer's Choice comes the story of a woman with the power of touch. Skin doesn't lie to her. It is her gift, sometimes her curse. She feels what others felt, and sees the things held in their memories... With the touch of her palms to the skin of a crime victim, San Francisco tattoo artist Etaín can see the faces of the guilty and draw them. Changeling elf but unaware of it, at odds with her police captain father and FBI agent brother, magic and gift have put her in the path of two compelling men. Cathal Dunne, the son of an Irish mob boss, needs Etaín's help finding the rapists who left his cousin for dead. Eamon, a powerful elf lord, is determined to make her his consort-wife. Her gift once made permanence impossible when it came to a lover. Now, as she approaches the transition to fully Elven, her survival depends on keeping two. One of the men is willing to share her. The other isn't-until the search for a sexual predator turns deadly, and only by paying magic's price will there be any future at all.

The righting of an ancient wrong. A future foretold. The bands tattooed around her wrists are laced with a dragon’s green and more—destiny preordained… Mind Thief. Gift Thief. Feared for an ability to seize another’s thoughts and powers with a touch. San Francisco tattoo artist Etaín is such an elf—and the time has come for her to learn how to use her talents. Close to the transformation and about to discover her place in a supernatural world, Etaín once thought intimacy and permanence were impossible. Now she’s bound to Cathal, the son of an Irish mobster. And she’s also claimed by Eamon, an Elven lord with powerful gifts of his own. Eamon is determined to keep her safe—from others as well as herself. But a quest for justice is more than it seems, leaving their future to hinge on choice and magic. On promises made and dangerous bargains.

The righting of an ancient wrong. A future foretold. The bands tattooed around her wrists are laced with a dragon’s green and more—destiny preordained… Mind Thief. Gift Thief. Feared for an ability to seize another’s thoughts and powers with a touch. San Francisco tattoo artist Etaín is such an elf—and the time has come for her to learn how to use her talents. Close to the transformation and about to discover her place in a supernatural world, Etaín once thought intimacy and permanence were impossible. Now she’s bound to Cathal, the son of an Irish mobster. And she’s also claimed by Eamon, an Elven lord with powerful gifts of his own. Eamon is determined to keep her safe—from others as well as herself. But a quest for justice is more than it seems, leaving their future to hinge on choice and magic. On promises made and dangerous bargains.

Four of today's hottest urban fantasy writers together for the first time! From today's most provocative authors come four tales of urban fantasy and paranormal romance exploring body art that is more than it seems-in a world of magic and mayhem that always leaves its mark. This captivating tattoo theme surrounds each author's popular characters and worlds: Karen Chance's war mage Lia de Croissets, Marjorie M. Liu's demon-hunter Maxine Kiss, Yasmine Galenorn's Otherworld Intelligence Agency operative Camille D'Artigo, and Eileen Wilk's Lupi world.

Eric Smith takes you on a fast-paced fantasy adventure, perfect for anyone who has dreamed of being different . . . only to discover that destiny is more than skin deep. Sometimes your only chance to survive, and what you most fear . . . is to be INKED. Tattoos once were an act of rebellion. Now they decide your destiny the moment the magical Ink settles under your skin. And in a world where Ink controls your fate, Caenum can't escape soon enough. He is ready to run from his family, and his best friend Dreya, and the home he has known, just to have a chance at a choice. But when he upsets the very Scribe scheduled to give him his Ink on his eighteenth birthday, he unwittingly sets in motion a series of events that sends the corrupt, magic-fearing government, The Citadel, after him and those he loves. Now Caenum, Dreya, and their reluctant companion Kenzi must find their way to the Sanctuary, a secret town where those with the gift of magic are safe. Along the way, they learn the truth behind Ink, its dark origins, and why they are the only ones who can stop the Citadel. Praise for Inked "INKED is an action-packed read with a hero I could root for, magic I wanted to have, and a vivid fantasy world to back it all up. Smith's prose had me turning pages way past my bedtime." --Susan Dennard, New York Times bestselling author of Truthwitch "A fast-paced page-turner from Eric Smith filled with magic, mystery and mayhem." --Kristi Helvig, author of Burn Out "With a lively cast of characters and a captivating idea, INKED draws its readers into a world where magic lives on every page." --Kat Zhang, author of The Hybrid Chronicles series

There is hidden, powerful wisdom in tattoos. Did you ever think of your tattoo as a charged body talisman or a portal into your spiritual self? Ancient cultures practicing shamanic tattooing laid the groundwork for our modern exploration of consciousness. Tattoos are both a revelation and a proclamation of your embodied archetypes, dreams, emotions, even a hint of past-life memories. Conscious Ink shows how this edgy skin art interfaces with our body’s subtle energy field and reveals how tattoo imagery ties into the potent energy of inner alchemy that expands our self-awareness. Are you prepared to: Find out how/why intention is the moving force behind your tattoo’s vibration? Do you bring on good luck or bad juju? Understand why the piercing of your skin and drawing of blood forms a symbolic link into the energy field of your tattooist? Explore how tattoos reveal past-life/current-life emotional memory? Discover how tattoos can shift the emotional energy stored in certain body areas? Mindful inking can be an amazing modality that awakens your spiritual self. Looking at tattoos beyond the lens of body art, Conscious Ink gives you a new perspective on tattoos and their undeniable roots in pure, magic and mysticism.

New York Times bestselling author Kevin Hearne returns to the world of his beloved Iron Druid Chronicles in a spin-off series about an eccentric master of rare magic solving an uncanny mystery in Scotland. “A terrific kick-off of a new, action-packed, enchantingly fun series.”—Booklist Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails—and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae. But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse. But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective—while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice’s death will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld, and he’ll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he’s to survive.

For hundreds of years, Thai Buddhist monks, using magical incantations and spells, have been covering people's bodies with indelible ink marks in the belief that they will attract luck, wealth, and blessings. Images of tattooed men appear in 18th century murals. In the past, people believed that these tattoos would provide protection against evil spirits and could render the bearer invulnerable to stab wounds and even bullets. Known in Thai as Sak Yant, these ancient tattoos are today undergoing a revival in popularity, both in Thailand and beyond. In addition, Thai tattoo masters are invited to practice their art abroad, thus increasing the popularity of Sak Yant worldwide. Drawing on research fields as diverse as anthropology, religion, history, medicine, and psychology, 'Thai Magic Tattoos - The Art and Influence of Sak Yant' also seeks to explain how tattoos can change the life of the bearer. With magnificent new photographs by Rene Drouyer, 'Thai Magic Tattoos' is an essential guide to this fascinating subject. 202 illustrations

In recent decades, tattoos have gone from being a subculture curiosity in Western culture to mainstream and commonplace. This two-volume set provides broad coverage of tattooing and body art in the United States today as well as around the world and throughout human history. In the 1960s, tattooing was illegal in many parts of the United States. Today, tattooing is fully ingrained in mainstream culture and is estimated to be a multi-billion-dollar industry. This exhaustive work contains approximately 400 entries on tattooing, providing historical information that enables readers to fully understand the methods employed, the meanings of, and the motivations behind tattooing—one of the most ancient ways humans mark themselves. The encyclopedia covers all important aspects of the topic of tattooing: the major types of tattooing, the cultural groups associated with tattooing, the regions of the world where tattooing has been performed, the origins of modern tattooing in prehistory, and the meaning of each society's use of tattoos. Major historical and contemporary figures associated with tattooing—including tattooists, tattooed people, and tattoo promoters—receive due attention for their contributions. The entries and sidebars also address the sociological movements involved with tattooing; the organizations; the media dedicated to tattooing, such as television shows, movies, magazines, websites, and books; and the popular conventions, carnivals, and fairs that have showcased tattooing.

For millennia, tattoos have documented the history of humanity one painful mark at a time. They form a visual language on the skin, expressing an individual’s desires and fears as well as cultural values, family ties, and spiritual beliefs on the surfaces of the body. The Indigenous peoples of Asia have created some of the world’s oldest and most distinctive tattoos, but their many contributions to body art and practice have been largely overlooked. Tattoo Traditions of Asia is the first single volume dedicated to the anthropological study of an ancient cultural practice and artform that spans many countries and societies, ancestral lands, and contemporary communities across the continent and its islands. This richly illustrated survey combines the author's twenty years of fieldwork, interviewing hundreds of Indigenous tattoo bearers and contemporary tattoo practitioners, with painstaking research conducted in obscure archives throughout the region and elsewhere to break new ground on one of the least-understood mediums of Indigenous Asian expressive culture—a vital tradition to be celebrated, an inspirational story told in skin and ink.