Synopsis
Each section of this moving memoir of a turbulent literary life is based on one of Trachtenberg's seven tattoos.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1997-05-01 |
| Size | | Length: | 263 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 17.6 oz |
Publisher's Note
Each section in this innovative book is the story of one of Trachtenberg's tattoos, as well as an intellectually freewheeling exploration of the themes that the tattoo evokes: death, sacrilege, primitivism, rebellion, atonement, sado-masochism, and downfall. In Trachtenberg's travelogue of the body, a search for Dayak tattoos takes him to deepest Borneo, to a funerary ritual that ends in demonic possession. His youthful infatuation with Catholicism leads him on a drug-addled pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Teresa of Avila that is movingly juxtaposed with a brutal narrative of his addiction. A failed love affair generates the screenplay for an imaginary film noir and a breathtaking and subversive reading of noir's S/M subtext. Trachtenberg summons up the scalding shame of being cursed by his dying father, the grief and tenderness of singing to his dying mother.
Peter Trachtenbergs Seven Tattoos: A Memoir in the Flesh is much more than the memories of an eloquent writer. Its wild anthropology, eclectic theology, literary observation, and a treatise on the uses of body modification and tattooing. Even Trachtenbergs most harrowing and absurd experiences become universal through his illuminating prose.As a Jew drawn to the ritual of Catholicism, plagued by its guilt and craving its absolution, he gets a tattoo of the wound of Christ. An unfilial son and regretful lover, he marks himself with the Archangel Michael, who drove Adam and Eve from Paradise. "Most tattoos are signifiers of the past, commemorating events that have already transpired. Thats how I see most of mine," Trachtenberg explains. "But tattoos may also act upon the future, protect the body from impending danger or consecrate it for some arduous task ahead." Each chapter in Seven Tattoos explores the theme evoked by the corresponding tattoo: death, sacrilege, primitivism, rebellion, atonement, sadomasochism, downfall. Each of Trachtenberg's seven tattoos is a totem, a print the world has left on him that he has chosen to display on his body. Like fresh ink, Seven Tattoos is striking, bold and indelible.
Industry Reviews
"Peter Trachtenberg has achieved something wonderful and miraculous. He has spun his tale of journey and knowledge in a heartfelt, riveting, vital memoir of emotion, lust, and love, baring himself, endearing himself, soaring. I can only thank him for writing this glorious book, as indelible as those seven tattoos that adorn his body."
other - Joel Rose
"A fiercely beautiful, heartbreaking, funny, incandescent memoir."
Rose
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