MEASURING 16 by 10 inches, the new book BloodWork: Sleeves tips the scales at more than 10 pounds. Produced by the Analog Tattoo Arts Kolectiv (ATAK), the gargantuan project comes with a slipcover and hand-stenciled mailing case.

The front of the jet-black tome contains an embedded circular hologram featuring a photo of someone's torso covered in tattoos from top to bottom, neck to arms. When viewing the hologram from different angles, the subject's arms move up and down as if he's starting to fly. Inside the book, one finds gatefold after gatefold, as every other page folds out with a different glossy composite of photos of sleeve tattoos—i.e., those in which the person's entire arm is covered. In each case, the person with the tattoo, a.k.a. "the collector," shows off different angles of his or her sleeve, and the photo is then spliced together in a wingspan or rotational composite, displaying different angles of the person's arm in one unique singular view, so it looks as if the subject has multiple appendages.

The photo shoots for the 67 sleeves took place in San Jose, Los Angeles, London and Zurich, representing tattooists with different styles from all over the world. The stated goal was to document, exhibit and publish a comprehensive exhibition of sleeves by the entire world-tattoo community. Conceptualized and compiled by Analog's Adrian Lee, the project amazingly managed to unite a global assemblage of tattooists—usually the kind of folks who would rather just do their own thing and not take part in a project of this magnitude and complexity.

"Asking tattooers the world over to participate in a highly choreographed project of this nature would be a conspicuously ambitious, politically sensitive and potentially reckless endeavor," writes Lee in the book's introduction. "Being fiercely independent creatives, tattooers are justly protective of their craft and wary of outside meddling. As Mike Malone was known to say, 'We're pirates.' This mistrust of outside intervention is intensified by the recent increase in corporate exploitation of tattoo culture, which siphons life from (and risks trivializing) the craft."

Instead, BloodWork: Sleeves is project entirely designed by and for people who tattoo for a living—a 100 percent do-it-yourself endeavor. The core elements of the craft are preserved, and people's trust is maintained. The contributors from across the globe know that their talents are not being exploited and misunderstood by some ineffectual bungling publisher who knows absolutely nothing about tattooing.

In conjunction with the San Jose Convention of Tattoo Arts, which hits the San Jose Convention Center this weekend, a book-release hoedown for the book takes place at Anno Domini this Thursday (Oct. 29), officially kick-starting the convention weekend.

Many of the collectors photographed for the book will attend. The party also celebrates the 2-year anniversary of the Analog Kollectiv, which was previously incarnated under another moniker, the New Skool Kolectiv (NSK).

Three years ago, NSK produced a similar book project, titled Full Coverage, featuring photos of back projects, where the collectors' entire backsides were tattooed. That particular book-release party took place in conjunction with the 2006 San Jose Convention of Tattoo Arts and also went down at Anno Domini. It was a huge success, with hundreds of convention-goers and regular folks from the street packing the gallery to see 33 people display their entire tattooed backsides. Lee, then of New Skool, coordinated the affair.

"We always give Adrian the opening party, because he does a really good job at it," said Takahiro Kitamura, the San Jose–based organizer of the convention.

Finally, if you're among those who think tattoos on other people are great to look at, but you yourself wouldn't want one, well, this party is a perfect opportunity to gawk. Human canvases are essentially the gig here. The desire to maintain control over and embellish one's own flesh is part of our universal collective existence. Corporeal human bodies will eventually wither away, which makes documentation that much more important. So if you can't afford the book, at least bring your digital cameras and photograph the arms at hand.

The BLOODWORK: SLEEVES party takes place Thursday (Oct. 29), 8pm till late, at Anno Domini, 366 S. First St., San Jose. (408.271.5155)

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