My book, Blood and Lightning, explains how tattoo artists think, feel, and act.

Stanford university press, 02/2024

Red book cover with the title, "Blood and Lightning: On Becoming a Tattooer" written in light text, with the author name, Dustin Kiskaddon in bottom right corner.

“a landmark study of the craft of tattooing that is consistently compelling and rewarding.”

-Chicago Review of Books, “12 Must-Read Books of February 2024”

  • "More than any other ethnography I've read, this one breathes on the page."

    JENNIFER C. LENA, author of Entitled: Discriminating Tastes and
    the Expansion of the Arts

  • “This book is a true immersion into what remains an overall obscure practice to the general public."

    MAXIME PLESCIA-BÜCHI, Tattoo Artist, Founder of Sang Bleu studios

  • "Kiskaddon offers rich reflections on questions of permanence, bodily awareness, and managing errors. A must-read.”

    TERRENCE McDONNELL, coauthor of Measuring Culture

  • "This is truly an excellent ethnography"

    KRISTEN BARBER, author of Styling Masculinity: Gender, Class, and Inequality in
    the Men’s Grooming Industry

  • "Both entertaining and humanizing, Kiskaddon's trek through the deeper facets and darker issues of tattooing is a welcomed window to an often misunderstood world"

    GORDON COMBS, Tattoo Artist

  • "Kiskaddon shows how tattoos, like history and storytelling itself, can evolve depending on the body or the world they occupy.”

    DEVIN KATAYAMA, Senior Produce for NPR’s Throughline