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Staten Islander Publishes Nautical-Themed Tattoo Book

By Nicholas Rizzi | June 29, 2015 5:07pm
 "Lost at Sea" feature more than 200 artists from around the world.
Lost at Sea
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WEST BRIGHTON — Instead of putting tattoos on skin, Nick Caruso decided to put ink to paper.

Caruso, co-owner of Bound for Glory Tattoo, teamed up with Philadelphia tattooer Eric Perfect on a book filled with nautical-themed tattoo art such as lighthouses, anchors and mermaids.

"We're on Staten Island and I figured it was appropriate for the nautical theme," he said. "We also both really love nautical-themed tattoos. We wanted to do something to give back to tattooing, something good for the tattoo world."

"Lost at Sea," published by Scorpion Front Publishing, has flash art — a sheet of pre-designed tattoos — from 210 artists around the world selected by Perfect and Caruso.

Caruso and Perfect had the idea to work together on a tattoo book several years ago and noticed there weren't any that collected nautical art, which has a long history in tattooing.

"Most of tattooing became popular from sailors and people traveling around and seeing other people’s tattoos, it’s at the core of tattooing for us," said Caruso, who's been tattooing for 18 years. "We're both kind of steeped heavily in tradition and we wanted to keep it true to real tattooing."

The pair worked for about a year and half getting art from tattooers across the globe, including some from Japan and others from everyone who works at their shops.

"They're people we really look up to in the tattoo community," Caruso said. "Mostly the people that were invited were people that we really love their work and have done something good for us in the past."

It also has a forward by well known Dutch tattooer Henk Schiffmacher, who's inked such famous people as Kurt Cobain and members of Pearl Jam, according to his website.

The $200 book was published in a limited run of 1,000 copies — with 100 special edition bounded in faux leather. Caruso said they've already accumulated enough artists to put out a second book, if they decide to do so.