If you really want to understand Charm City and the charming people in it, you've got to get your hands on a copy of Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore.

Editor William P. Tandy's handcrafted anthologies on city life, told by lifelong residents and those who love it from afar, will guide you through the best brews in town, the toughest neighborhoods you can live to write about and even close encounters with a ghost or two. According to the Web site, there are now 14 zines about nearly every aspect of our fair city.

Skin Deep continues the at turns entertaining, appalling and resonant trend. With poetry, history and some stunning first-person accounts, the 58-page zine is sure to hold your interest, tattooed or not.

High (and low) points include a tribute to a tattooed soldier who died in Iraq; some Smalltimore ink solidarity in Gibraltar; a horrifying narrative describing a tattoo removal; and a hilarious look back at young love and its end, courtesy of an Elmer Fudd on Romeo's rear.

As for what inspired Tandy's latest issue, in which he shares his own experience under the needle, he says he wanted a Mobtown twist on something that's caught his attention: reality tv.

"I sometimes enjoy watching the tattoo reality shows for the stories that clients bring into the shops. But most of these people come from places like Chattanooga or Duluth, and their stories are more rooted in those places than they are in any vacation spot," he says. Meanwhile, "we have our own museum devoted to the subject.

"With Skin Deep, I wanted to offer Baltimoreans an opportunity to tell the stories behind their tattoos while saving them a plane ticket to Miami."

So go pick up a copy, and if you're so inspired, share your own Baltimore experiences.