Untitled ["tattoo" book] 1971

This "tattoo" book, printed by James McCracken Jr., features simple shapes and forms. It looks like it was made with a stamp or stencil. I imagine the artist working intuitively, allowing the images to emerge through the process of repetitive mark-making. The iconography, skulls and bones, carries historical and cultural associations relating to mortality, the occult, and tattoo art. The simplified skull hovering above the jawbone has a ghostly quality – light grey like a faded memory. The jaw itself is rendered in stark black outline, those teeth look like they could still bite you. I wonder what McCracken was thinking when he made it? Was he interested in the way these symbols could be used to explore themes of life, death, and transformation? Looking at this book I get the feeling of impermanence, the fleeting nature of existence. It makes me want to go and make my own marks.