Coney Island Ink
PORTRAITS OF THE CONEY ISLAND TATTOO FESTIVAL
Coming spring 2026!
In the late 1980s, in the midst of New York City’s infamous tattoo ban, Sideshows by the Seashore on the legendary Coney Island Boardwalk began hosting an event distinct from its usual fare of sword-swallowers, snake charmers, and other marvels: the annual Coney Island Tattoo Festival. With New York’s tattoo artists driven underground and the art form publicly condemned as part of a dangerous fringe culture, this gathering in “the People’s Playground” served as a safe haven, drawing in tattoo enthusiasts from across the city and beyond. It also drew in a photographer from the Bronx who was fascinated by this world and the people who inhabited it. While not tattooed himself, for seven years Thomas Santelli served as the Festival’s designated “official photographer,” documenting this colorful event and the remarkable people who attended it with care and veneration.
In this book, Santelli shares over 230 of his color and black-and-white portraits from the Coney Island Tattoo Festival, featured alongside cultural and historical commentary by the Tattoo Festival’s creator Amy Krakow, tattoo historian Dr. Matt Lodder, and Brooklyn-based novelist Amy Shearn. Captivating and nostalgic, Coney Island Ink is a time capsule from a unique event in a one-of-a-kind place, a celebration of the irrepressibly resilient tattooing community, and a photographer’s tribute to everyone who graciously sat for his camera.
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Contributors
Amy Krakow was the creator and producer of the Coney Island Tattoo Festival which she ran for nearly ten years. In Coney Island Ink, she shares a behind-the-scenes look at the remarkable origins of this one-of-a-kind event. She is known as a prolific event producer, marketing director, museum curator, public relations expert, and the author of The Total Tattoo Book, the “Brief Lives” column in New York Magazine, and many other publications. Other events she has helmed include the Off-Broadway Theater Awards (the Obies), the New York Festival of Street Performers, and the Mermaid Parade.
Dr. Matt Lodder is an author, curator, broadcaster, and associate professor of Art History and Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Essex in the UK, specializing in the history of tattooing in the Western world. In Coney Island Ink, he dives into the cultural history of tattooing in New York City and the art form's ties to the sideshow spirit of Coney Island. He also co-hosts the award-winning podcast Beneath the Skin and serves as a trustee of the Bishopsgate Institute in London, a major archive of vernacular and subcultural London history.
Amy Shearn is the author of five novels, including Unseen City, winner of an IPPY Gold Medal in Literary Fiction, and Animal Instinct, called a best book of 2025 by NPR, Oprah Daily, and others. In Coney Island Ink, She brings readers onto the Boardwalk of "the People's Playground" in a sharp, funny ode to this vibrant corner of New York City. Her work has appeared in many publications, and she teaches creative writing at Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop, the Yale Writers’ Workshop, and Writing Co-Lab, an experimental cooperative she helped found.
The Team
Thomas Santelli - Author, photographer, and designer
Gabriela Gordon - Graphic designer
Jessica Loy - Freelance graphic designer, illustrator, and children's book author
Emma Loy-Santelli - Editor and writer currently working for Serendipity Literary Agency in New York, NY
