Marianne Bernstein – fresh from curating the First Person Arts-produced Welcome House and Shelter exhibit – has a new book out, Tatted. With the diverse landscape of South Street as her terrain, Bernstein photographed tattooed individuals she would meet along the way. Her pictures are accompanied by handwritten notes on the tattoos by the subjects themselves.

She presented the project at a First Person Salon in February 2009, which Andrew (former Marketing Coordinator) liveblogged about. Turns out that Marianne doesn’t have a tattoo herself (though maybe this has changed? Marianne, care to share?) and Philly was home to the first legal tattoo parlor. I don’t find this surprising; we do seem to like our ink in the ‘illadelph.

Tattoos have never really gone out of style, but more serious attention is being paid to them lately, between Tatted and the current (and very cool) exhibition at the Philadelphia Seaport Museum, Skin & Bones: Tattoos in the Life of the American Sailor. At the very least, a greater recognition of the stories behind the pictures seems to be in play.

Meet Marianne and other tattoo practitioners and admirers tonight at the Tatted launch party, 7-10, Free, at the Pure Gold Gallery in the Piazza at Schmidt’s (1050 N. Hancock St.). And after you finish chatting up the cutie with the hot sleeve, stop by the Philebrity Awards Show and say hi to me (Karina) and Nick.