Fiction where tattoos feature in a big way

[Anonymous]

So I am looking for stories or novels where tattoos or tattooing is a major feature, rather than an incidental one.

So far I've got
Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man
The Tattooist of Auchwitz

Books like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo aren't about the tattoo enough, even though it is in the title.

Would love to know if anyone could think of other stories / novels

[Anonymous]

One of the books in John Burdett's series -- Bangkok Tattoo. It's the second in a very good series. The first is Bangkok 8. But the second one is the one that features tattooing very prominently.

[Anonymous]

Business Casual by BK Borison - the main character is opening a tattoo studio. It’s the fourth book in a series and she’s in earlier books (her brother is the MMC in an earlier book and he let her work on him when she was getting started). They’re romcoms with some spice.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199252912

[Anonymous]

There is a John Irving book that fits. Until I Find You.

[Anonymous]

Here are booklists related to tattoos from Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/tattoos

[Anonymous]

Prison break

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for your responses - so helpful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a John Irving book that fits. Until I Find You.

This looks great and I found a copy for $4 from abehbooks!

[Anonymous]

Tattoos play an important part of the plot in The Garden of Evening Mists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tattoos play an important part of the plot in The Garden of Evening Mists.

Thank you for directing me to this one. I just read the first 30 pp on Amazon and will get a copy. It's unusual in that the narrative voice is 1st person and the story told in present tense. It took a minute for me to wrap my head around.

[Anonymous]

Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's dart. It's a historical fiction set in medieval Europe with an elaborate court society and religion around a pantheon of angel demi-gods, and the protagonist is a kinky woman dedicated to masochistic worship in honor of a goddess-whore.

Each house has it's own version of worship and it's own tattoo. The completed tattoos are the mark of indentured courtesans fulfilling their debts.

It's also just really good fantasy fiction

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's dart. It's a historical fiction set in medieval Europe with an elaborate court society and religion around a pantheon of angel demi-gods, and the protagonist is a kinky woman dedicated to masochistic worship in honor of a goddess-whore.

Each house has it's own version of worship and it's own tattoo. The completed tattoos are the mark of indentured courtesans fulfilling their debts.

It's also just really good fantasy fiction

Thanks. I am trying to stay within the literature range but this sounds worth a look.

[Anonymous]

I read this as "Taboo" and I had a long list.