Shane Turgeon’s new book is a true tour de Force! While I personally don’t have any tattoos, I have a great many friends who do – and this book is for all of us. The Force in the Flesh is beautifully designed by Jeff Correll with amazing photos (many of them by Curtis Comeau), but what really makes it so much more than just a coffee-table book is the fact that you get a real sense of the men and women pictured through short but insightful essays that explain their dual passions: Star Wars and body art. Add to that an amazing selection of flash art by some top tattoo artists (a major gallery show, anyone?), and it’s hard for me to put this book down. Just when I think I’ve read it all, I turn a page to read about a Star Wars branding. And then I discover that a friend found inspiration in a commissioned piece in my personal art gallery for his first major tattoo. Go figure that I’d have to read that in a book – but then those are just the kinds of golden nuggets you’ll find in this superb addition to the growing body of work at the intersection of Star Wars and popular culture. Bravo, Shane!
Steve Sansweet
Author – “The Star Wars Vault”, “The Star Wars Poster Book”, “Star Wars: The Action Figure Archive”, “Star Wars: From Concept to Screen to Collectible”
I LOVE Star Wars, and I love tattoos, therefore this collection is perfect. I even named my tattoo documentary “See You In Hell” based on the family loyalty of Han Solo charging out into the snow on “Hoth” to save Luke while exclaiming “Well, I’ll see you in Hell”. I’m a geek, I know. I was fortunate enough to have some of my work featured in the book and my artists at www.allornothingtattoo.comwere also lucky enough to get in. This is an incredibly well done project, put together by a man that obiously knows his Star Wars! I recommend this book to EVERYONE! Its amazing.
Brandon Bond
CEO/ALL OR NOTHING INC.
CEO/Stranglehold Publishing
www.allornothingtattoo.com
www.brandonbond.com
www.strangleholdmerch.com
www.brandonMFbond.com
There is truly a Force brought out in Shane Turgeon’s new book, The Force in the Flesh. While I personally don’t have tattoos, I know that they are very popular within the Star Wars community and this publication pays tribute to this popular art form.
The book’s content, layout and photography all combine to make this the finest Star Wars tattoo reference work of its kind. The superb design in graphics as well as format is a tribute to Shane and Jeff Correll. The photography captures the essence of the topic in a way that makes this work so appealing. The detail and color found in the photos allows the reader to view the images as though they were there “in the Flesh.”
Shane deserves all the success, not only for his authorship of the book but also and probably more importantly the publication of this work. Self-publication embodies a huge effort getting a manuscript and photos into a book form and then into print, marketed, and distributed—all with personal costs and risks. This was a fantastic effort.
This publication is a “must have” for anyone interested in tattoos especially with a Star Wars genre.
John Kellerman
Author – “Star Wars Vintage Action Figures: A Guide for Collectors”
The quality of the book is the first thing you notice upon picking it up, the binding is excellent, great quality jacket, paper, etc. etc. This book is going to last through many years of enjoyment. For those budding artists like myself (not tattoo), the book’s longevity comes in handy as you look at it a million times for inspiration.
The layout of the book is just great (props to Jeff), easy to navigate, pleasing to the eye, and really does justice to the artwork it contains.The picture quality is excellent, you have no problem seeing the smallest of details in the tattoos/artwork, and ALL the angles are covered. I was somewhat afraid that portions of the art would be left out do to angle restrictions/etc., but I was pleasantly surprised as there are multiple angles of EVERYTHING, and always enough of them to make everything out; there wasn’t one thing I wanted to see that I couldn’t. You can tell a lot of thought went into this.
The photos are clear and bright, and I think really do justice to the tattoos, which, in my limited experience, can be tough to do when photographing them.
I, like everyone else, very much enjoyed the stories of the people/artists; they really bring the book togeather. I figured the stories would be sort of interesting, but didn’t really care one way or the other, but man, I couldn’t have been more wrong, they really takes this book to that next level. GREAT JOB!
I highly recommend that everyone pick up a copy of this book, it really is a treat, even for those not interested in getting a Wicket tatt on their bicep. The artwork that the book contains is more than worth the investment, and the stories will really resonate with collectors (IMHO).
Justin Vidal