Publisher’s Description

Mark Michael Kilpatrick draws some killer tattoo art. Literally.

Skulls and nudes are nothing for this madman. An artist driven to purge traumatic visions of hell from his tainted mind, Kilpatrick expresses himself by permanently working his ink into the skins of unwilling victims. His tattooed visions are so terrifying they drive the bearer to suicide. His tattooed visions that require only flesh as a canvas. Fresh, murdered, flesh….

News reporter Roy Roberts finds himself drawn into the tattoo subculture, just as Kilpatrick begings to sets his sights on the local news station to “go public” with his sick masterpieces. And as Roberts and his offbeat group of friends become drawn deeper and deeper into Kilpatrick’s world, Roy realizes that he alone must try to save them…only to find himself immersed in the torturous depravity of Kilpatrick’s private hell of ink and pain.

Praise

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Critics Guild Award.

“Grave Markings is a high-speed chase into madness, unpredictable and twisted as a mountain road, written by one of the most inventive and outrageous new talents in the horror genre.”– Karl Edward Wagner, Author

“A Horse’s Mouth from hell. A piercing look at art’s illegitimate underbelly. Michael Arnzen is an excellent writer, and Grave Markings is a uniquely disturbing debut. Arnzen has a big future ahead of him.” — Bentley Little, Author

“Michael Arnzen’s debut novel is garish, unsettling, and darkly beautiful — just like the artwork of its main character. Like that artwork, it makes a statement that simultaneously fascinates and repels. You want to turn away. You must turn away. But, oh God, you can’t. Arnzen’s definitely a writer to watch.” — Paul F. Olson, Author

“Michael Arnzen pulls the reader into the world of Grave Markings with a vivid, surreal hook, then makes it impossible to escape as the nightmares are unveiled. A great thriller.” — Sidney Williams, Author

“An authentically painful read, which conveys a real sense of a mind and a culture dangerously out of control.” — Ramsey Campbell, Author

Contents

Grave Markings: The Novel
“An Eye for an Eye” (chap 4.5) first appeared  in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XX (DAW Books, 1995).
“Permanent Ink” (Preface to the 10th Anniversary Edition)

Excerpt

Here’s a chapter from Grave Markings in which a tattoo artist tells a tall tale to a newcomer to ink. This tale was originally published in Outlaw Biker Tattoo Revue magazine in 1991 and was reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories Vol. XX (DAW Books, 1992). If for some reason you can’t open the window below visit scribd.com.

Excerpt from GRAVE MARKINGS by Michael Arnzen

Specs

GRAVE MARKINGS
A Novel
by Michael A. Arnzen

Paperback, Dell/Abyss Books, 1994
383 pages. ISBN: 0440213398
Out of Print

Hardcover: Tenth Anniversary Edition
Delirium Books Dark Essentials Series #2.2, Signed/Limited to 150 Copies.
Delirium Books, 2004.
365 pages.
Sold out.

Tattoo. (German Edition)
Bastei-Verlag, 1996.