With no „Coming Soon: Body Art 5” tip at the back of this volume of the series we may suspect that Body Art 4 is the last installment of a decent series. Before we start to worry about it, though, let’s take a look at the contents of this part.

Once again, it looks familiar thanks to sticking to the well-known by now format with interesting features, body mod classes, the readers’ tattoos and vixen tattoos. As usual, though, the contents are quite surprising and interesting to read as there are always some pieces of knowledge to pick up here.

While reading Body Art 4 we can check out the modern tattoo shops that look very different from these old-fashioned ones that are still present in smaller towns (but even these places really care about cleanness now). The most famous tattoo artists going for a luxurious touch in their shops are allegedly called the “Tatt Pack” (which sounds kind of ridiculous, doesn’t it?) and among them are such names as Dan Gold of London Ink fame, a female tattoo artist Friday Jones and Mario Barth.

Leaving the luxury zone we can focus on much cooler and extreme stuff as there are pages devoted to outdoor suspension (quite shallow, though, so don’t expect any interesting details!), play piercing, Enigma’s facial cutting (with some insight on pain and initial healing from him), traditional methods of tattooing, ash tattoos or flat scars as yet another form of scarification. All of it is basic and short but it’s just a way of introducing many faces of body modification to the general public, so those of us really interested in the subject can take it from here and do a more serious and in-depth research!

In my opinion, the best part of this book is interviews with a few interesting people. It starts with Alan Macias who talks his arm amputation and how he handles it with tattoos and a positive attitude, goes to Amina Munster who is not only a very attractive but also intelligent and down to earth woman who isn’t afraid of saying what she thinks and ends up with Matt Gone who tackles a serious illness in his own way and isn’t afraid of living his life to the fullest. At such moments this book stops being just a colorful book with pictures you could use to freak people out and makes you think on what these people have to say and share!

This serious content aside, there are also some nice ideas to consider to find here! The cyborg eyes article shows what might be possible in the future, white tattoos show a more subtle and personal way to decorate our bodies and dot-to-dot tattoos are a proof that not everything, mods included, should be taken seriously!

It’s an easy read/ flip-through book but it also contains a few pages that make you stop for a while to think. A good choice for these who just started being interested in the subject but also not bad a book for these who are already heavier modified and want to know what is going on out there. The plastic world is here right to the real one and the juxtaposition is interesting enough to take a look at Body Art 4!

Body Art 4, Titan Books 2012;