In Blood and Lightning cultural sociologist Dustin Kiskaddon draws on his own apprenticeship in the form to take us behind the scenes into the complex world of professional tattoo artists.
Any tattoo is the outcome of an intimate, often hidden process. The people, bodies and money that make tattooing what it is blend together and form a heady cocktail, something described by Matt, the owner of Oakland's Premium Tattoo, as 'blood and lightning'. Faced with the client's anticipation of pain and excitement, the tattooer must carefully perform calm authority to obscure a world of preparation and vigilance.
Through his apprenticeship with Matt, Kiskaddon meets people who must routinely manage a messy and carnal type of work. Blood and Lightning brings us through the tattoo shop, where the smell of sterilising agents, the hum of machines and the sound of music spill out onto the back patio. It is here that Matt, along with his comrades, reviews the day's wins, bemoans its losses and prepares for the future.
Having tattooed more than five hundred people, Kiskaddon articulates the physical, mental, emotional and moral life of tattooers. His captivating account explores the challenges they face on the job, including the crushing fear of making mistakes on someone else's body, the role of masculinity in evolving tattoo worlds, appropriate and inappropriate intimacy, and the task of navigating conversations about colour and race.
Ultimately the stories in this book teach us about the roles our bodies play in the social world. Both mediums and objects of art, our bodies are purveyors of sociocultural significance, sites of capitalist negotiation and vivid encapsulations of the human condition. Kiskaddon guides us through a strangely familiar world, inviting each of us to become a tattooer along the way.
Dustin Kiskaddon is a cultural sociologist whose work can be seen on Instagram at @Dustin.Kiskaddon. After nearly a decade of teaching and a few years of professional tattooing, he now uses his expertise in culture, the economy and technology to conduct applied research.
Stanford University Press, 264pp, 15cm x 23cm, illustrated paperback, 2025
