Introduction

Mike is a tattoo artist running his own shop, and Deb is the piercing artist he hires to round out the motley crew at his studio of four. The last thing either expects is romance, but that’s exactly what happens when they follow their off-kilter careers and love lives into complete disaster.

When Mike follows a growing trend and tattoos the ashes of deceased loved ones into several customers’ tattoos, he has no idea that it will one day provide the solution—and solace—he will sorely need. And when the life of a serial killer tragically collides with the lives of those in the tattoo shop, Mike and Deb will stop at nothing in their quest for revenge, even if it means stepping outside the known boundaries of life and death.

Ink that is full of crematory ashes, a sociopathic killer, and pain in its most raw form combine for one of the most imaginative, haunting thrillers in recent memory. Full of wit and heart, A Good and Useful Hurt delivers the goods with the pain of a needle in skin.

Editorial Review

A Q&A with Aric Davis

Question: In A Good and Useful Hurt, Mike and those he tattoos can communicate with the dead by mixing ashes of those who have passed in ink and tattooing with it. You have worked as a professional body piercer for 16 years in various tattoo shops, so how much of this book is inspired from real life?  Can you tell us where the idea of communicating with the dead this way came from? 

Aric Davis: I have seen ashes tattooed in skin, I have pierced people with jewelry worn by a fallen partner, and I have seen countless memorial tattoos. Without sharing too much--this one isn't my story--we once had a seemingly endless stream of customers visiting us to be tattooed with an image of a kitchen appliance. A young man that they all knew had passed, and apparently he'd spoken at length about being tattooed with that very appliance. Those tattoos likely seem very silly to those who don't know their meaning. All that said, the idea came specifically from two customers who had lost a son in the war. Neither of them had ever considered being tattooed, and they came in for all of the right reasons, namely, to start recovering. They not only were clients, they became friends, and what was an inescapable tragedy for their family became a blessing to all of us, because the tattoos seemed to work. No ghost stories there, something even better. They chose to live.

Q: A Good and Useful Hurt starts out as a love story set in a tattoo shop, then evolves into a supernatural manhunt complete with ghosts and a serial killer. Was it always your intention to have the beginning of the book be such a stark juxtaposition to the end?

AD: Believe it or not, it was. The first hints to this are revealed in the first line of the book, and to be quite honest, all of the quirky build up with the customers is meant to ready the readers for some really out there stuff. The story as a concept was first written as sort of a tattoo ghost story to pass around the tattoo shop on a very slow Halloween back in 2008. It was called "Ink." The guys at work loved it, but to me it was too fast-paced. The idea was stuck in my head like a rotten tooth--it wouldn't stop screaming at me. Writing from a short was something I'd never done, I don't outline and rarely know exactly where I'm going with something, so to have a finish set in place was a new thing, and kind of nice.

Q: You chose to dedicate the book to the young women who were murdered near your home in Grand Rapids last year. What message do you have for those who have been the victims of terrible crimes?

AD: The message stated in the book by the character Doc, and later mentioned in the afterword, is that we as a society place far too much emphasis on those who commit horrible acts, rather than those who were destroyed by them. I would much prefer children be taught the names of ten people killed in the 9/11 attacks, than only learn the name of the man who is assumed to have planned them.

Q: Your catalogue includes a play, a YA mystery novel, regular appearances on "The Five Hundred" (a short story site); youâ??ve been published on the wsj.com; and now you've written a horror novel.  With such a diverse collection, how would you describe your style? Who would you recommend read A Good and Useful Hurt?

AD:  I think I write what makes sense--to me--at the time that I write it. For whatever reason that has worked out to be this unintentionally eclectic style of writing. I just love the hell out of it. I can't pick where my muse takes me, regrettably, but I do love the ride. I think a reader for A Good and Useful Hurt should be ready for a fairly rough voyage, and should also remember that as dark as things get, there is always some light left.

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