He squints his eyes against the glare on the glossy page. Knows, even before the image swims into focus, that the picture will be of a skinny young man with peacock feathers on his back, and a fleshy girl with blossoms and lilies upon her shoulder.

Simon Appleyard and Suzie Devlin are two pleasure seekers defined by their flamboyant tattoos. Their lust for life is matched only by their hunger for taboo pleasures – a lifestyle that has just made them the deadliest enemy imaginable.

DS Aector McAvoy has been a marked man all his life. A policeman with scars to his body and career, his fate will become linked with that of Simon and Suzie as painfully and intricately as tattooed markings on virgin skin.