Acknowledgements

For a collaborative project of this size, there is no way we could thank the many people who have contributed their time, energy, and expertise to making this book happen, but we wanted to send a special thanks to the following people for all of their huge efforts.

Two very talented and knowledgeable artists/tattooists we have all come to really enjoy and respect over the years, Friday Jones and Ray Reasoner, were directly involved in helping us with the writing and editing process. Nic Garcia and Maya Salam lent their writing and editing skills, bring a “non-industry, tattoo enthusiast” perspective, and they also conducted many of the interviews required for the book. Brittany Marlier, Content Coordinator for TattooFinder.com, did a fantastic job organizing and tracking the thousands of designs, as well as spending countless hours on research and fact-checking. Bryan Johnson, our In-House Flash Artists & Graphic Designer, did an amazing job “cleaning” and processing all artwork for delivery, as well as creating the graphic examples in the book. Steph Hutchison, who heads our Customer Services and Support department, not only helped with interview transcriptions and copyediting, but insured that our website customers got the same top-level service they have come to expect from us while so many in the company were consumed with this project. We would also like to thank Greg O’Connor, our Senior Legal Counsel for assuring the complex legal requirements were met in this collaborative effort. And of course, we must thank Jeannine Dillon, Senior Editor at HarperCollins, who originally came to us with the idea for this book, guided us through the process of putting it together, and massaged the copy and artwork into a final product that far exceeded our original hopes and expectations of what this book would be!

Many thanks go to the industry authorities who agreed to be interviewed for The Tattoo Sourcebook: Edward Lee, Guy Aitchison, Lyle Tuttle, Rand Johnson, Spider Webb, Brandon Bond, Endorpheus, Mike O’Neil, Shane Hart, and Terri Fox. We cannot stress enough how important their insights were both in the quality of substance and nuanced flair. Full interview transcripts, biographies, photos, and other rich information on these “legends” can be found on our website. Many others (too many to note here) provided insights on specific questions we had and various ideas and drafts we provided to them: thank you all!

And of course, we must thank the extremely talented 40+ artists who contributed their artwork for inclusion in this book. Over the years, we have not only come to respect and admire their artistic capabilities, but now also call many of them great friends. It is their creativity and passion that is at the core of this book and the TattooFinder.com website.

- Lou Bardach, Rachael Bardach, Brad Hutchison and Brett O’Connor
the editors and owners of TattooFinder.com