In 1970, Sara Ehrenreich boards a small plane and returns to New York City with much fanfare; she will be featured in Life magazine. She has not left Ta'un'uuthe South Seas island upon which she and her husband, Philip, were marooned during a stormin more than thirty years. Sara doesnt know that man has landed on the moon. She has never seen a ballpoint pen. Her body is covered, head to toe, in tattoos.Flashback: its 1918 and Sara, a shop girl and aspiring artist, meets Philip, a wealthy member of the avant-garde elite. The two fall in love, marry, and collaborate to make art, surrounded by socialites and revolutionariesuntil the Depression cripples not just Sara and Philip, but most of their patrons. When Philip is offered a job gathering masks from the South Seas, they jump at a chance to escape Americas sorrows, traveling to Taunuu for what they think will be a weeks stay. The rest is historya history Sara records on her skin through the traditional tattoos that become her masterpiece and provide an accounting of her days. Narrated in vivid and starkly moving prose, The Tattoo Artist reminds us of the unforeseeable forces that shape each human life.From the Trade Paperback edition.