The beautiful and talented Cali Sefora graces the cover and showcases her delicate blackwork inside the pages of this issue. Our featured artists are Salem, Massachusetts natives and Black Veil Tattoo’s eerie Murray Twins! Don’t worry, we packed in the tattoo spotlights too! Francesco Bianco, Alexy Deschamps, Teodor Milev, Nacho Frias, Oksana Lukianenko, Andrea Frencken, Luis Valesquez, and Ryan Ousley! Music & Ink sat down for an exclusive interview with KK’s Priest, formerly of Judas Priest for a Q&A with guitarist KK and frontman Ripper Owens. Our Studio Spotlight is Jake Swift’s Cocoa Village Tattoo. Rob Smead of Electrum once again brings his industry-specific business knowledge to our pages. And last but not least, you absolutely don’t want to miss out on our fine art features in this edition, Dave Correia, and Mark Oliver! Skin & Ink Magazine Summer Edition 2022

Who's innovating the tattoo industry? Who are the artists pushing the envelope and creating beautiful works that we've never seen the likes of before now? Who are the artists that inspire us to push our own work to the point we hadn't thought was possible? This is what Skin & Ink Magazine is all about! The Winter 2022 edition of S&I features some of the world's most innovative creators. Brandon Herrera brings his hyper-realistic dark works to our pages along with Edit Paints, whose miniature photo-realism masterpieces both are purveyors of their respective corners of our industry. Hiram Casas, from the current season of Ink Master, shows us he does have what it takes. Our artist spotlights in this issue are Eddie Stacey, Anrijs Straume, Julianna Menna, Ary Morssuza, Ruth Barja, and Ellyn. S&I Studio Tour traveled to Paris and popped into two local street shops for a quick chat. The Music & Ink team sat down with the Southern-Alt-Rap group, Rehab for an interview. Our Fine Art features in this issue are world renown surrealist David Seidman and realism painter Agnieszka Meinartowicz. All this and more packed into this edition of the ever-inspiring Skin & Ink Magazine!

Assemble Artifacts A short story magazine that assembles a thrilling new mix of stories from genres including horror, science-fiction, comedy, and suspense. Buried at the heart of every story in the magazine is a unique artifact, an object that has inspired our storytellers to create a big idea, an irresistible question, a new immersive world, or a sense of wonder. Unearth your next great read with Assemble Artifacts. “The Family Proof” by Arianna Reiche Human-like androids on a mission to assimilate into suburbia as a nuclear family are placed in a high stakes game of murder and deception when their anonymous creator vanishes. “First Ship” by Eric Lewis An astronaut sure of her destiny to be the first person to reach a new star system realizes she’s about to be beaten to the history books and takes desperate measures to get there first. “Love, Happiness, and All the Things You May Not Be Destined For” by Lindz McLeod A young woman meets with older and younger versions of herself in which they guide her, with astronomical ramifications, towards an unfamiliar path. “Prism” by Nick Shafir A newly discovered phenomenon causes ghosts to be seen all over the world. As the events grow more frequent and precarious, a woman with the special ability to speak to the apparitions must find out what’s causing these events before it’s too late. “End of the Earth” by Brianna R. Whitrock Tired of putting her faith in science and logic, Nic goes on a fantastical odyssey to the ends of the Earth to reunite with the adventurous love of her life. “Mephisto & Me” by Lyle Stiles After a police officer murders his father, a high school junior deals with trauma and resentment—and the sudden appearance of Mephisto, a mouthy demon-possessed robot who promises a skewed version of justice ... World-ending Armageddon.

A play about the imagined fault line between black and white lives by Claudia Rankine, the author of Citizen The White Card stages a conversation that is both informed and derailed by the black/white American drama. The scenes in this one-act play, for all the characters’ disagreements, stalemates, and seeming impasses, explore what happens if one is willing to stay in the room when it is painful to bear the pressure to listen and the obligation to respond. —from the introduction by Claudia Rankine Claudia Rankine’s first published play, The White Card, poses the essential question: Can American society progress if whiteness remains invisible? Composed of two scenes, the play opens with a dinner party thrown by Virginia and Charles, an influential Manhattan couple, for the up-and-coming artist Charlotte. Their conversation about art and representations of race spirals toward the devastation of Virginia and Charles’s intentions. One year later, the second scene brings Charlotte and Charles into the artist’s studio, and their confrontation raises both the stakes and the questions of what—and who—is actually on display. Rankine’s The White Card is a moving and revelatory distillation of racial divisions as experienced in the white spaces of the living room, the art gallery, the theater, and the imagination itself.

"Magnificent." -- Holly Black, New York Times Book Review Come to the crossroads, to the crossroads comeSierra Santiago planned an easy summer of making art and hanging with her friends. But then a corpse crashes the first party of the season. Her stroke-ridden grandfather starts apologizing over and over. And when the murals in her neighborhood begin to weep real tears . . . Well, something more sinister than the usual Brooklyn ruckus is going on.Where the powers converge and become oneWith the help of a fellow artist named Robbie, Sierra discovers shadowshaping, a thrilling magic that infuses ancestral spirits into paintings, music, and stories. But someone is killing the shadowshapers one by one -- and the killer believes Sierra is hiding their greatest secret. Now she must unravel her family's past, take down the killer in the present, and save the future of shadowshaping for herself and generations to come.Full of a joyful, defiant spirit and writing as luscious as a Brooklyn summer night, Shadowshaper introduces a fantasy heroine and magic unlike any you've ever seen before, and marks the YA debut of a brilliant new storyteller.

"One of the best fantasies of the year." - Buzzfeed "Riveting, passionate, and full of high stakes danger." —Tamora Pierce, #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Thiede's exciting fantasy debut, This Vicious Grace, the first in The Last Finestra duology, will keep readers turning the pages until the devastating conclusion and leave them primed for more! Three weddings. Three funerals. Alessa’s gift from the gods is supposed to magnify a partner’s magic, not kill every suitor she touches. Now, with only weeks left until a hungry swarm of demons devours everything on her island home, Alessa is running out of time to find a partner and stop the invasion. When a powerful priest convinces the faithful that killing Alessa is the island’s only hope, her own soldiers try to assassinate her. Desperate to survive, Alessa hires Dante, a cynical outcast marked as a killer, to become her personal bodyguard. But as rebellion explodes outside the gates, Dante’s dark secrets may be the biggest betrayal. He holds the key to her survival and her heart, but is he the one person who can help her master her gift or destroy her once and for all? Don't miss the thrilling conclusion to The Last Finestra duology, This Cursed Light— out now wherever books are sold!

A dazzlingly original and ambitious book on the history of female self-portraiture by one of today's most well-respected art critics. Her story weaves in and out of time and place. She's Frida Kahlo, Loïs Mailou Jones and Amrita Sher-Gil en route to Mexico City, Paris or Bombay. She's Suzanne Valadon and Gwen John, craving city lights, the sea and solitude; she's Artemisia Gentileschi striding through the streets of Naples and Paula Modersohn-Becker in Worpswede. She's haunting museums in her paint-stained dress, scrutinising how El Greco or Titian or Van Dyck or Cézanne solved the problems that she too is facing. She's railing against her corsets, her chaperones, her husband and her brothers; she's hammering on doors, dreaming in her bedroom, working day and night in her studio. Despite the immense hurdles that have been placed in her way, she sits at her easel, picks up a mirror and paints a self-portrait because, as a subject, she is always available. Until the twentieth century, art history was, in the main, written by white men who tended to write about other white men. The idea that women in the West have always made art was rarely cited as a possibility. Yet they have - and, of course, continue to do so - often against tremendous odds, from laws and religion to the pressures of family and public disapproval. In The Mirror and the Palette, Jennifer Higgie introduces us to a cross-section of women artists who embody the fact that there is more than one way to understand our planet, more than one way to live in it and more than one way to make art about it. Spanning 500 years, biography and cultural history intertwine in a narrative packed with tales of rebellion, adventure, revolution, travel and tragedy enacted by women who turned their back on convention and lived lives of great resilience, creativity and bravery.

Cliff Fyman's Taxi Night is a splendid and powerful book-length poem in four parts. The real-life patter and ambience of his fares reach the hackie, Fyman, as he transports a rainbow cast of denizens around the boroughs from 5 p.m. until 5 a.m. The first two sections are transcribed from overheard cellphone combat, or a jiving fare who tries to play Fyman verbally, or more than a few nutcases. But Fyman's show is the farthest thing from a freak show. Each appearance at the mike, so to speak, is brief. Fyman presents the words he captures in precisely sculpted form, ingenious line breaks, one word lines - from-the-gut poems which retain a credible verbatim and are rigorously artful. Eloquence in their realism. The last two sections increasingly are transcribed from Fyman's own silent, deeply inner verbatim. These pieces are equally Swiss-movement poems. Vibrant slices of anonymous lives rendered with a dramedy of depth and compassion. A moving celebration of whatever we become when we buy a ride and take to the backseat stage. -JOHN GODFREYTaxi Night is strong and clear like an ink drawing with bold lines that are few and stark but tell the whole story, the place and time, the people, how they think and speak, the music of it, a documentation of the undocumented, simultaneously very close and very far, which is how people are. -TANIA SUSSKINDThere's no better place to view the human condition than the driver's seat of a New York City cab. Just ask poet Cliff Fyman, who has transformed his stint behind the wheel into Taxi Night, a touching, sometimes mind-blowing work. Through lovingly handled "found" material; curious diction; and acute, sometimes deadpan observation, Fyman gives the reader all the drama, humor and pathos that comes from a steady stream of humanity in the backseat. He has an excellent ear for everyday speech and the sharp editing skills of a top-notch documentarian. Read Taxi Night slowly or breathlessly. Read it all the way through or read it in bits. Either way, you're in for a great ride. -PETER BUSHYEAGER Dude, they are pure gold! They capture the upper class in unguarded moments. Yr bits are the highlight of my day! -RON KOLM

It's our 100th issue of Woodcarving Illustrated! Featuring 100 of the best carving tips from over the 25 years of Woodcarving Illustrated, a commemorative 100th issue “quilt” carved from wooden blocks submitted by readers and contributors, a detailed article featuring today’s most prominent carving organizations, and so much more, this issue is a true celebration of the carving community. More than a dozen carving patterns and projects are included that cover a range of techniques and styles, from a simple s’more and a Halloween-themed undercover Santa to a chip carved candy dish, a rustic magic wand, an English ivy-inspired spoon, a wood burned mallard duck, and more. Build your skills, be inspired, and celebrate 25 years of Woodcarving Illustrated with us in this landmark 100th issue!

“Craig wields powerful and vivid prose to illuminate a country and a family trapped not only by war and revolution, but also by desire and loss.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Miss Burma tells the story of modern-day Burma through the eyes of Benny and Khin, husband and wife, and their daughter Louisa. After attending school in Calcutta, Benny settles in Rangoon, then part of the British Empire, and falls in love with Khin, a woman who is part of a long-persecuted ethnic minority group, the Karen. World War II comes to Southeast Asia, and Benny and Khin must go into hiding in the eastern part of the country during the Japanese occupation, beginning a journey that will lead them to change the country’s history. Years later, Benny and Khin’s eldest child, Louisa, has a danger-filled, tempestuous childhood and reaches prominence as Burma’s first beauty queen soon before the country falls to dictatorship. As Louisa navigates her newfound fame, she is forced to reckon with her family’s past, the West’s ongoing covert dealings in her country, and her own loyalty to the cause of the Karen people. Based on the story of the author’s mother and grandparents, Miss Burma is a captivating portrait of how modern Burma came to be and of the ordinary people swept up in the struggle for self-determination and freedom. “At once beautiful and heartbreaking . . . An incredible family saga.” —Refinery29 “Miss Burma charts both a political history and a deeply personal one—and of those incendiary moments when private and public motivations overlap.” —Los Angeles Times