Free Tattoos...

...after you fork out the eight bucks for the new November/December 07 issue of the Believer Magazine, of course. Artists like Marcel Dzama, Steve Powers and Ai Weiwei contribute to the selection. Inside, there's a pretty great feature by Leanne Shapton, who looks at other artists' takes on the loves in their lives. My favorite: a series of scribbled notes by the wife of Keith Arnatt. She passed away in 1996, and afterwards, he photographed 18 of the scrawls she'd left for him over the years. A highlight: "YOU BASTARD! YOU ATE THE LAST OF MY CRACKERS." Reminds me of "This is Just to Say," a poem I love, by William Carlos Williams.



Anyway, if you look carefully at the cover, there's a self-portrait tattoo of the artist Ai Weiwei. Underneath the flap, a swarm of flies are heading straight for his beard. And if you are interested, I interviewed him on page 72.