EDITOR'S COMMENT—July 2004
So, what's new?
Glad you asked. Thanks to continued excellence by our team of writers, photographers and artists, plus an upswing in newsstand sales, Skin & Ink has decided to expand. More pages, you ask? Nah. Better than that. Sure, we're going to continue to surprise you with special bonus magazines like our 16-page September 2003, 9/11, New York City firemen tattoo issue, but we have even more up our sleeves.
Starting with an April 2004 issue, you can find our brand new sister publication at your favorite newsstand―in the adult section. Hmmmmm. In the adult section? Yup. That's the rules. As long as you show bare breasts or private parts in a magazine, it falls under the adult publication category and has to be relegated to the porno section and packaged in a plastic bag. That's so minors can't pick it up, see a pair of tattooed bosoms and become instant axe murderers. Or worse!
It all came about because of Lars Krutak. You know Lars from the splendid articles he has done for us on the tattoo scenes in the Bering Straits , Kosovo and Cuba. Lars is a world-class writer/researcher for likes of the Smithsonian Institute and National Geographic. So, Lars sends me this fabulous feature on the tattooed women of New Guinea. Problem is, the tattooed women of New Guinea don't wear no shirts!
In other words, I can't share this brilliant Lar's Krutak article with my Skin & Ink readers. If I do, they wrap us in a plastic bag.
The whole thing is silly, of course. But rules are rules. So, instead of tossing the article, I said to myself, "Baxter, how about creating a second magazine with shirts optional?" In fact, pants are optional, too, and the new magazine is called Erotic Ink. Best of all, many of the Skin & Ink staffers and regulars came along. You won't want to miss Bruce Litz's new adventures of Capt. Eddie, Matty Jankowski's Postcards from the Edge, Charles Gatewood's Kinky Ink, photo features by Maury Englander and Ronan Spelman, plus Back to Basics with Marie Baccaro, Parallax View with Cherie Hiser, Advice to the Lovelorn with Don Reynoldo, The Tattoo Advocate with Ron White and an absolutely shocking centerfold, new each issue, by non other than Slave to the Needle's Aaron Bell. Add top pinup photographer Ashley Fontenot and legendary cartoonist Jerry King, and that's just the first issue.
Hey, check it out.
―Bob Baxter, Editor in Chief