UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Editorial Note

To This Special Issue on Tattoos

THE SUBJECT of tattoos has interest for all students of the human condition. Anthropologists, sociologists, and physicians are particularly interested professionally, the first because whatever man has ever done excites their curiosity, the second because the practice of tattooing has social and ethologic implications, and the third because they have to deal with complications and removal of tattoos.

In the material that follows, several aspects of the subject of tattooing are explored briefly and illustrated to a considerable degree. In this place it has not been possible to treat the subject as exhaustively as it deserves. Nevertheless, each section and its accompanying illustrations is an earnest of what could be written and illustrated if the subject were to be treated in depth. In the near future it is hoped that it will be treated in proper depth, illustrated more extensively, and presented in book form and length.

In developing this material for the exhibit that was first presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in 1978 and since has been touring or is booked for tour in Japan, Canada, England, and other places in the United States, nearly two hundred individuals have contributed. It is not possible to thank them properly by merely listing their names. Their assistance was invaluable. In this issue, the names of some contributors appear on material they wrote or illustrations they provided, but they are a minority of the many who contributed as much. I have also to thank the editorial staff of the Journal of Dermatologic Surgery and Oncology for assembling and publishing the material as it herein

appears.

-Norman Goldstein, M.D.

848 J. Dermatol. Surg. Oncol. 5: 11 November 1979