This tells the story of Cy Parks, from his childhood spent in a seaside guest house for consumptives with his mother, to his apprenticeship as a tattoo-artist His skills acquired and a thirst for experience burning within him, he departs for America and the riotous world of the Coney Island boardwalk, where he sets up his own business as 'The electric Michelangelo' Here he meets Grace, a mysterious immigrant and circus performer who commisions him to cover her body entirely with tattooed eyes