Herbert Hoffmann · BilderbuchMenschen · Tattooed Passions 1878–1952

The most sought-after tattoo book in the German-speaking world. Edited by Oliver Ruts and Andrea Schuler, portrayed and photographed by Herbert Hoffmann. Hoffmann (1919–2010) spent his life photographing people who were tattooed back when that still meant something — sailors, circus people, labourers, women from the Hamburg dock district. BilderbuchMenschen gathers that archive: portraits from 1878 to 1952, together with Hoffmann's own pictures from his shop on the Hamburg Reeperbahn.

Hoffmann was not just a tattooist, he was a chronicler. He wrote down and photographed what nobody else thought worth keeping. When Memoria Pulp published the volume the print run was small and the circle of buyers smaller still. Today no bookshop stocks it, and the second-hand market sits at 700 to 1200 euros — five offers on booklooker, two on AbeBooks, nothing cheap in between.

Used, and used properly. The boards are rubbed along the edges, the block is tight, the plates clean. This is a book somebody read, not a shelf ornament. If you want a flawless copy, this is not it.

• Oliver Ruts & Andrea Schuler: BilderbuchMenschen · Tattooed Passions 1878–1952
• portrayed and photographed by Herbert Hoffmann
• Memoria Pulp, hardcover
• Portrait archive 1878–1952 plus pictures from Hoffmann's Hamburg studio
• Second-hand market 700–1200 €, priced well below here