We've decided to TEMPORARILY suspend the ordering of books.

This was never meant to be a "business"- the idea was to help a few people to get books for 'cheap' (essentially what WE pay for them plus shipping) but the response has been TOTALLY OVERWHELMING, to say the least! Unfortunately the number of book orders we've been receiving have been more than I've had time to deal with. This, coupled with shipping delays/snafus from our supplier, has created a chaotic mess that's resulted in many orders taking WAY longer than they did when I first started doing this. On top of this, we've had a BUNCH of people scam us with credit card & PayPal charges, and try to scam us- some were obvious but there have been some pretty slick ones too. This REALLY sux because we're practically a 'non-profit' - if we make $5 off a book we're LUCKY. Like I said, this was never intended to be a business- I just thought it'd be cool to help some people to get books cheap and to benefit from a chance connection I made with a Japanese book supplier. I'm really not even sure why, with all the hassles, I still keep doing this. But I guess I still think it's good karma to try and help people out without a financial reward and I LOVE being able to help spread Japanese art (that I love so much) around.

So, in order to get ALL of the orders we've received filled, to get the whole mess straightened out and to implement some new procedures to make sure that future orders go more quickly and smoothly, I've decided to shut down for a month or two.

Everyone that has placed an order WILL be receiving their books as soon as I can possibly get them out. Unfortunately it is going to take me some time to get all the orders straightened out, get all the books in that aren't already here and get them out to the right people. I'm REALLY sorry about the delays- especially some of you that have already been waiting for while- but there just isn't any way to get it all straightened out overnight. I'm doing the best I can, as fast as I can, but I ask for your patience and understanding. If you'd like to call me to inquire about your order, please feel free to call me at the studio during the week.

When we do re-open the book store, pretty much everything will look the same- even the wide selection of books will remain- but we'll have a whole new system for ordering and for tracking orders so that when you order a book it'll be a LOT easier for you to find out the status of the order and orders will not be taking as long as they have been since last winter. We'll also have some new systems in place to identify scammers and I'll have some extra help with orders so we won't get overwhelmed with orders again. We're, also, working to get our supplier to pick up the pace with shipping orders and to be more accurate with orders. One of our biggest problems has been mistakes because of language differences. I really want to apologize to people who want to order a book but , for the time being, aren't able to- I hope that you'll stop back by in a month or so, or wait until then, because the bookstore will be MUCH BETTER as a result of this brief respite.

Once again, I'd like to apologize for any inconvenience this temporary shutdown may cause to new and returning customers; and especially to customers that have an outstanding book order. Please be assuered that everything possible is being done to complete all orers just as fast as we can and to get the online store back up as soon as possible. Please bear with us and check back soon!

Sincerely,
Nick Anderson
Body Adorned

Imagine the sound oif typewriters in the background: dit-Dit-dit-dat-dat-dat-tit-dat-ta-tat-tit-tat........

"...And here's the latest from Body Adorned Books- Your #1 source for the best Japanese Tattoo & Japanese Art Books at low, low prices!"

The Body Adorned Tattoo & Piercing Forums are now OPEN!  Don't let the name fool you- there are forums for ALL sorts of topics relating to Japanese Art, Japanese books and more:

•  The Japanese Art Forum is an open discussion forum on all sorts of Japanese fine art.  If this forum becomes popular we'll subdivide it into medium (genre)-specific catagories!  If you're a fan of Japanese fine art, join in the discussion and help make the forum a success!  Tell all your friends!
• Japanese Book Review Forums where you can read, and post, about the books on our site and any other Japanese books!  If you're thinking about buying a new Japanese book, check and see if others have posted their opinions about its usefulness or post a request for information on the book!  If you bought a book, post (in the book's forum if there is one) your thoughts about it- let us know whether you loved it or you hated it!  This is a great place to post your questions/comments about the Body Adorned Japanese Tattoo & Art Reference Book Store!
• The Japanese Tattoo Forum is a great place to meet other people with an interest in Japanese tattooing and to discuss the art- where it's been and where it's going!  If you're thinking about getting a Japanese style tattoo this is a GREAT place to do some research and even to ask for opinions on who to go to!
• The "Ask a Tattoo Question" & "Ask a Piercing Question" forums are great resources for getting your body art questions answered by a professional!  The "Ask A Question" forums are sert up so that anyone can post a question, but only tattoo artists an piercers that have been checked out and authorized by us are able to reply!  This guarantees that the information that you get back will be accurate!
• The "Professional" Forums are private forums for Tattoo Artists and Body Piercers (respectively) to talk 'shop' amongst themselves.  These forums are, in no way, a competition to other professional forums; but rather another option and a necessary component to facilitate the "Ask a Question" forums.  IF you are a professional tattoo artist or body piercer and would like to join us, please send us an email and we'll send you instructions; or, if you're already an EzBoard member, go to our "Password Request Forum" and request the password to the applicable forum(s).  Before requesting access to ANY of the professional forums, you MUST be registered (free) with EzBoard.com and you MUST have your profile COMPLETELY filled out- Shop name, address & phone, Website (if applicable), years in the industry and a "VISIBLE" & WORKING EMAIL ACCOUNT!
• The "Open Discussion Forums" are just that- an opportunity for anyone interested in tattooing or piercing to initiate topics of discussion related to their interest).

We hope you drop in and, at least, check it out!  As an added incentive, we're going to be granting discounts on our books to people who register and participate in the forums!  If you're interested in participating, please follow the simple instructions below to get (and validate) your FREE global EzBoard account.  Registration is required but it's totally free and you will NOT receive ANY unsolicited emails, or any other inconveniences, as a result of registering- we chose EzBoard VERY carefully!  This one-time membership will also allow you to access any other of the thousands of EzBoard driven forum sites on the web!  It's worth the 5 minutes it takes to register!

To Register with EzBoard.com:

1. Click Here To Go To The EzBoard.com Registration Form!
2. Once you’ve completed and submitted the form, you’ll need to go to your email (the one you used in your registration) and look for a validation email from EzBoard.com- it’s generated automatically when you submit the form.
3.  Click the validation URL in the email and then you’ll be able to login to your account with them.
4. When you login (www.EzBoard.com )- make sure to select the box that says “Disable High Security” so that you can stay logged into your account unless you physically logout.  If you don’t see the “disable High Security” you may need to logout and then log back in.
5. Once you are registered and logged in, click this link to get to our forums and then save the site in you "Favorites" list!  You're ready top begin posting! 

5/26/04

We just sold the last if the Namakubi copies that were already here in the States.  Not to worry- we can still order more copies from Japan.  It's just that for the time being, until our supplier decides to advance additional copies to the transit warehouse here in the States, we'll have to order copies one at a time- as they are ordered from us.  This means that the normal shipping time will apply and we won't be able to offer copies as quick as we have been.  We HAVE asked the supplier to advance more copies and they are considering it.  If they DO decide to make the advance, and more copies are made available, you can be SURE we'll post about it in here!

 5/21/04

Tonight, we finished adding the new PayPal Shopping Cart System to the site to make ordering easier!  Now, if you want to use you credit card, you can simply click the appropriate* 'Add to Cart' button of the books you want. When you're done shopping, just click one of the 'View Cart' buttons you'll find near the top of each book description page- you'll be taken to you cart and you can click "Check Out" and follow the instructions from there!  PayPAl is a fast, eassy and secure way to buy you Japanese tattoo reference books from Body Adorned!

If you're really old-school, and don't like to use your credit card, or bank account, online you can still use snail mail to send us a Money Order or Cashiers check.  For complete instructions on the various methods of payment, please click here!

As some of you may have noticed, about a week ago we added a bunch of new titles including almost all of the Horiyoshi III books!  On top of that, we're offering the Horiyoshi III books (Namakubi, 100 Demons, 108 Heros of the Suikoden and Wanzakure) for the LOWEST PRICES ANYWHERE!

We're really proud to be able to offer these incredible Japanese art reference boos for such CHEAP prices!  Unfortunately, for those of you who qualify for the 'Professional Tattoo Artist Discount,' we are not able to offer any additional  discounts on these particular books- we've ALREADY discounted them as much as possible.  These books are SO amazing, and SO important, that we felt they should be made available to everyone; and putting a rock-bottom price on them, that everyone qualifies for, was the best way to achieve that goal. It's STILL  the BEST DEAL AROUND!  So enjoy!

* Appropriate button = If you want to purchase a book, use the plain "Add To Cart" button- the 'Verified Tattoo Artist: Add to Cart' button is for professional tattoo artists that have already registered with us and have been APPROVED  by us. Please, if you are not a 'Verified Professional Tattoo Artist' DO NOT  this button- if you do, you will be notified that you are not eligible for this discount and you will be asked to provide the balance due on your order.  Failure, on your part, to provide this balance will result in a refund (Minus a $25.00  - $50.00 US service charge) and you will be banned from any further purchases on our site.

5/5/04

First of all, for those of you that visited us in our first few days, you may have noticed that some of the prices have gone up $1 - $5.  We want to apologize to those of you that noticed and explain why this had to happen.  This was necessary for two reasons:  1. The web guy mis-typed a few prices that we didn't catch before the store went public.  2. We mis-calculated between the shipping and exchange rates and found that we LOST money on several orders.  We think that we, finally, have all the figures right.  Everyone who sent in orders (even their initial email) will get their orders at the old prices, even if we lose money.  This was our mistake and we'll pay the price.  We hope you can understand that we are not in this to lose money.  These slight price increases basically cover the shipping that we include with all our books.  We still have the best prices around, by far, and we'll continue to try to save you as much money as we can.

The second News item is an advance warning:  We are, currently, involved is some negotiations with our supplier- we may need to drop the "Shipping Included" policy (which will lower prices) and begin charging for shipping.  IF this happens, it will have NO real effect on you, our client, as we will simply institute a flatv per-book shipping & handling charge and add that to thew new (lower) prices.  The end-result will be the same exact price you see for each book now.  This would just be a technical change for us, but we are hoping to avoid it.  We will post about it, in here, if it happens.

Third, We will be adding new titles this week- including some of the Horiyoshi III books (100 Demons & 108 Heros).  I know we've been saying this for a while now, but it really is going to happen this week!

As always, we (Body Adorned Books staff) are dedicated to making available the very best in Japanese Art & Tattoo-related books at the very lowest prices possible.  We are always looking for new titles and trying to negotiate the best prices for those titles.  We are not some big corporation, we're just some tattoo artists trying to get better books for ourselves, our friends and the tattoo community at large.  We couldn't do this without the help of you, our customer- we rely on your patronage to maintain the arrangement that we have with our supplier. You have our thanks for the overwhelmingly positive response we've had in our first week!

We ask that you bear with us as we try to work out any kinks (i.e. the pricing problem) in the site and in our system- we're doing the best we can and things should be pretty well worked out by now.

Remember: Body Adorned Books is always looking for new titles- so, if you have any suggestions, please let us know!