About the Author: Carine Fabius
Carine Fabius is the author of:
Mehndi-The Art of Henna Body Painting, (Random House,1998)
Ceremonies for Real Life (Council Oak Books, 2003)
Sex, Cheeese and French Fries-Women are Perfect, Men are from France (Kouraj Press, 2006)
Jagua-A Journey into Body Art From the Amazon (Kouraj Press, 2010)
Ms. Fabius has also been published in African Arts magazine, a UCLA/Fowler Museum of Cultural History publication; Calabash: A Journal of Caribbean Arts and Letters (an NYU publication); and Conscious Living magazine, a Sacramento, California-based publication. She is also a regular blogger on Huffington Post since 2007, writing about arts, books, culture and lifestyle issues.
Ms. Fabius was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and moved to the United States with her family at the age of eight. She grew up in New York, moved to Miami at the age of 21 then headed west to Los Angeles, where she lives today. In 1990, Ms. Fabius and her sculptor husband opened Galerie Lakaye, a contemporary ethnic art gallery with a focus on Haitian art. The gallery has been featured in various television shows and prestigious publications, including Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit Magazine, Los Angeles Times, and many others. Ms. Fabius is a body art pioneer, having introduced temporary henna tattoos on the West Coast in 1997. Her company, Lakaye Studio, manufactures a line of temporary tattoo kits. She is also an independent museum curator for venues throughout southern California.
In search of the jagua fruit, author Carine Fabius takes readers on a journey into the deepest realms of the Amazon jungle, where a prized tattoo ink weaves magical tales into the heart and culture of the region's indigenous people.
Written in a breezy, engaging style, the book includes:
- 40 pages of gorgeous color photographs, including contributions by noted documentary photographer and travel writer Cristina Mittermeier
- Over 25 black & white photographs and illustrations
- The author's personal account of her and her artist/explorer husband's journey into the world of temporary body art, beginning with henna and culminating with the discovery of the jagua fruit's promise to deliver a beautiful tattoo that looks real — yet fades after two weeks
- Excerpts from her husband Pascal Giacomini's diary as he travels on a motorized dugout canoe into the deepest reaches of the jungle, where he spends weeks with an indigenous group called the Matsés
- Brief histories of various indigenous groups associated with jagua
- Personal and insightful essays by veteran explorers and lovers of the Amazon
- Information on the medicinal and mystical properties of the jagua fruit
- Magical tales and beliefs surrounding this extraordinary fruit
- A short history of tattoos
- A short history of ink
- Frequently asked questions (and answers, of course!) about jagua tattoos
- Overview of the Amazon, the Indians that populate the area, and issues that currently dominate throughout the region
- Traditional tales from the Amazon
