Years before Adrienne Rich would write in Of Woman Born that ” [women] need to imagine a world in which every woman is the presiding genuis of her own body,” 19th century Western women began exploring skin modification through the art of tattoo.

Margot Mifflin’s recently reissued Bodies of Subversion is more than just a photographic history of this deep subculture. It is a close study of women during a period of historic limitations and social mobility, beginning to break barriers by exploring alternative ideas of beauty and self expression. Originally released in 1997, Bodies of Subversion was the only account of the origins of female tattoo art in Western culture, providing a fascinating journey into a subculture ...