 March 2010 |
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Most of the time our cover photos come from articles inside the magazine. We attend an event, a tattoo convention, for example, and, more often than not, a suitable model appears before our cameras and makes it to the cover. We usually feature a pretty girl. A pinup. Although some of our best covers have featured men, pretty girls seem to be bigger winners on the newsstand. The fact is, when people are trolling the magazine racks for what to buy, it's kind of a beauty contest. But rules are meant to be broken. One rule was that illustrated covers do not work. Contrary to everything I had been told, I asked Aaron Bell to accept the challenge. The response to his "Little Sailor Girl" (September 2002) cover was terrific. Even more so for his "Girl in a Leopard-skin Bathing Suit" (July 2003). Without a doubt, it changed our publisher's mind. May 2004, for example, featured a painting of a Japanese-style chest panel by Jesse Tuesday. It outsold any issue that had come before. Then we began working with Tyson McAdoo. His brilliant, quirky style was perfect for our tribute to April Fools 2005, with its couple-dozen visual oddities (a shop girl talking on a telephone receiver that was a banana, a sign reading "No I.D. Needed," etc.). More Tyson covers soon followed, notably the little Scottish girl playing a bagpipe, which was dubbed "too erotic" for certain markets and substituted in various parts of the U.S. with a photo of Ms. Cherry Dollface. My cries of, "But it's only a drawing!" fell on deaf ears. Nonetheless, it proved that illustrated covers were making a definite impact. After a gorgeous illustrated Bruce Litz cover of a tattooed Chicana (April 2007), along came our first David Nestler offering. Featuring a raven-haired beauty writing flirty love letters to various servicemen overseas, this September 2007 masterpiece was the first of five that helped establish Nestler as one of America's great pinup artists and made our illustrated covers a recognizable SKIN&INK trademark. By the way, if you want to know more about how we selected this issue's cover photo of Jessie DeVille, here's the 4-1-1: To show off your pretty self in SKIN&INK, please send sample photos and, if we like what we see, we will contact you and link you up with one of our photographers. Or connect up with us at a convention (see "SKIN&INK will be at" notices in the Upcoming Convention Dates section of www.skinandink.com). Please know that our selection of models is based on several criteria (type and number of tattoos, placement, quality of workmanship, subject matter, visibility, as well as the model's good looks). To be considered, send photos with a cool letter (if we like it, we'll print it) to the snail mail or email address at the bottom of the page. Here's lookin' at ya. -Bob Baxter, Editor in Chief SKIN&INK |
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