The story begins when the police department asks Dakota to analyze a tattoo on a piece of human skin. In this World, mortals are aware of the existence of the supernatural world, but the supernaturals (e.g., vampires, shifters, mages) tend to stay away from the humans.

She is much more action oriented -always moving on to the next item on her jam-packed agenda.ĭakota runs her own tattoo shop, the Rogue Unicorn, and she is one of only two certified magical tattoo artists in Atlanta. In fact, Dakota spends hardly any of her time doing the usual UF angst-ridden interior monologue thing. Dakota is estranged from her father, a retired policeman, but she doesn't spend much time worrying about that. The tattoos are also a source of magical power that Dakota can pull from to defend herself. For example, a butterfly tattoo on Dakota's wrist can flutter its wings and rise into the air before settling back on her arm - or on someone else's body. She is six feet, two inches tall, and her entire body is covered with brightly colored, magical tattoos - and those tattoos can move. But Dakota is a fresh character, not a cliché. She even has the requisite quirky means of transportation: an ancient Vespa. Dakota is a true Edgeworlder, and in some ways, she is a typical UF heroine with the usual cynicism and attitude to go along with her way-out appearance.

In an alternate Atlanta (circa 2006), magic is alive in the Edgeworld-the edgy, restless culture that blends the human and the supernatural worlds. In this series, we have a truly original heroine, comfortable in her own colorful skin and living on the edge between the mundane and the mysterious. People’s eyes are drawn by my hair-no longer a true Mohawk, but a big, unruly “deathhawk,” a stripe of feathered black, purple and white streaks climbing down the center of my head-but their gaze lingers on the tattoos, which start as tribal vines in the shaved spaces on either side of the ’hawk and then cascade down my throat to my shoulders, flowering into roses and jewels and butterflies.” “I first started wearing a Mohawk to repel low-lifes-barflies, vampires, Republicans, and so on-but when I found my true profession it turned into an ad.

Frost Moon by Anthony Francis