EDITOR'S COMMENT — March 1999
It seems that, although it has no written copy to speak of and is hidden at the back of each issue, one of the most popular sections of our magazine is the Readers' Gallery. But there is a bit of a problem: A lot of excellent tattoo artists send in their photos, only to have them returned with our standard form letter. The letter explains why certain photos are returned—reasons such as the photos are flash-burned, out of focus, too small, too light, too dark or just not our style. I drafted this letter to facilitate a quick reply and to keep submissions from rotting in the dreaded Dungeon of Lost Photos. When I first took over the magazine, a typical complaint was, "Every time I send my pictures to a tattoo magazine, it's like throwing them down a black hole!" My solution was to immediately look through all incoming photographs and mail a response within a day or two. That fixes that.
The next problem is, quite often, in our efforts to be organized and prompt, a lot of excellent tattoo photographs are returned and not published. Being a writer that has submitted dozens of articles and stories and been unceremoniously rejected by numerous quality magazines over the years, I realize that even the most polite rejection notice hurts, and, considering that most tattoo artists aren't used to even the most gentle admonishment regarding their work, I have inadvertently stepped on a few toes. To deal with this, we have opened our new <www.skinandink.com> Web site to accommodate another 30 to 40 photographs each issue and provide an excellent showcase for twice as many readers' photographs as before.
But this still isn't the perfect system, mainly because, until now, selecting photographs for publication was done primarily by myself and my art director, both of whom are not tattoo artists. In my case, selecting photos is based on my personal aesthetic view and a quest for originality. I try to avoid showing the same koi fish or black panther with red claw marks design over and over and over, preferring to feature tattoos that are innovative and visually appealing. My art director, Jodi Barr, uses approximately the same criteria. Because of that, lots of perfectly wonderful tattoo photos, being duplicated themes, are often returned to sender, no matter who did them or how technically amazing the work might be.
To solve this problem, from this issue forward, we have enlisted the help of a revolving board of established and respected tattoo artists to help us sift through the literally hundreds and hundreds of photos we receive each week. We feel this is a better way to bring quality work into the Readers' Gallery and Web site. In light of this new editorial procedure, we respectfully ask the many tattoo artists who submitted photos in the past to accept our apologies and re-send your very best photos to Readers' Gallery, c/o Skin & Ink, P.O. Box 1069, Pasadena, CA 91102. Although this process will add a few days until you get a letter from us, we trust that this enlightened method of selection will improve the quality of our magazine and make us a better conduit for the enormously talented artists that we are anxious to feature.
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And, while we're on the subject of being a conduit; I would like to acknowledge the problems of relating the complex history of tattoo art through the oral tradition. Many articles featured on our pages are transcribed from taped interviews and, once in awhile, a fact or two gets twisted and trampled. Quite often, a mumbled phrase or artist name gets changed in the translation from tape to typewriter. So, in the interest of accuracy, please let us know if you detect any significant errors so that we may make the appropriate corrections and set the record straight.
Thanks for your patience.
—Bob Baxter, Editor in Chief