The tattoos in Under His Skin

Welcome back to another Saturday with me! The Pricked Party has been a blast so far. Everyone has been so supportive, and there’s been a great responce from the authors and readers both.

Each Saturday I’m talking about a different element behind my installment to the Pricked series from Ellroa’s Cave. The first Saturday I talked about how I almost didn’t write the book. Last week I talked about why I picked the professions I did for the hero and heroine. This week, I want to talk about the heart of this series, the ink.

For me, tattoos are very personal things. Yesterday James Tuck talked about tattooing from the artists perspective and how powerful that relationship can be. I realize that when I write tattoos on my characters, they mean something. There’s a story behind them.

Under His Skin opens at a tattoo convention, which I’ve shared bits of on my Six Sentence Sunday snippets. The hero is getting ready to commit to a large tattoo to comemorate his friends who have passed away. You can kind of see it on the book’s cover, it’s the ship that stretches up the model’s side. I was pretty excited when I saw they had included that detail!

The only other tattoo of Brian’s I talk about in depth are a pair of rattlesnakes, one tattooed on each shoulder/arm that extend over his chest and are poised to strike over his sternum. Now I’ll go ahead and admit that I stole the inspiration behind this tattoo from a smoking hot model I happened across on tumblr. He’s my kind of hot. I was going to include a picture of him here to prove how hot he is, but after the blog post yesterday from Roni about being sued, I’ve removed all images I don’t hold the rights to. But, if you would like to see a picture of the hunky guy, here’s a link!

I put a lot more thought into Pandora’s tattoos, which is understandable since of the two she has a lot more. She’s lived her entire adult life in and around tattoo shops and learning to tattoo. Each of the girls who work at the tattoo shop with her have a distinct style. Pandora is very much a Traditional and New School artist. She does those Sailor Jerry style and Americana pieces, and yet can turn around and give you a tattoo of your favorite cartoon character. It only made sense that her tattoos would follow in that vein.

In the book I specifically reference only a few of her tattoos. The first is a line of leopard print spots across her cleavage. This one I had to give her because when I was younger I really wanted this tattoo. Don’t ask me why, I’m really glad I didn’t tattoo my boobs, but I thought it would be fun to have a character with this particular tattoo.

The biggest tattoo of Pandora’s that I describe is a mural across her upper back. Her shoulders are dotted with fluffy clouds and the traditional cherubs, complete with loin clothes and bow and arrows, but that’s where the normal stops. You see, below the cherubs is a hoard of zombies and the cherubs are shooting arrows at them. Pandora has a thing for both angels and zombies. There are murals of zombies flanking her tattoo station, and stone statues of angels from Dr Who.

I talkled about two other small tattoos of hers through the book as well as the two larger, eyecatching pieces. One is a rubber ducky located just behind her ear, and the other is a little curled up cat, which you’ll have to read to find out where that particular tattoo is located.

Under His Skin was released yesterday. I’m super excited and humbled by all the support and interest this book has received. I hope people enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and delving into the So Inked culture. Next week I’m going to talk about what comes next, because this book wasn’t happy enough just being written.

A woman who doesn’t believe she deserves love…

Toe-curling kisses and enough sex to fill a weekend were all Pandora wanted from a fling with her teenage crush. She’s never forgotten how he played the knight in shining armor to her damsel in distress. She’s ready to say thank you in several naughty ways, so long as she can walk away when it’s over with her heart intact.

A man moving on from tragedy…

Brian has no intention of allowing the feisty tattoo artist to leave him after one taste. He hasn’t had enough of her inked curves. The packaging might have changed, but Pandy is the woman he hasn’t been able to excise from his memory. He’s ready to put together a new life, one that includes her. But he’s not the only one vying for her attention. Someone else wants her, dead or alive.

Under His Skin, So Inked #1, Pricked Series   Ellora’s Cave | Barnes and Noble | Amazon