Tribal Tats

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are just one of many bands on the market today that have multiple tattoos between the members.  Supposedly bass player Flea has the most tattoos within the band but that remains up for debate.

Some have to wonder why band members always seem to be so fascinated with getting tattoos.  Find me a band that doesn’t have a single member with a tattoo and you’ll have found an all girl band or maybe a tweener band, with pretty boys singing in falsetto voices and going to bed before 9pm.

Did the band get together to play music or did they get together to get tattoos?  It makes a person wonder, doesn’t it?  Is getting tattoos a right of passage for band members, or is playing in a band a right of passage for people who like to get tattoos?
Lots of bands seem to have tattoed members from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Green Day and even Avril Lavigne has tattoos.  They range from the ordinary star tattoo, tribal arm bands, random pictures of smoking babies, scorpians, and lettering of different styles, just to name a few.  Sometimes people like to watch the band members during videos or concerts to see if they can pick out a new tattoo that someone has gotten.  They make a game out of it, seeing who can pick out the newest tattoo first.  Who knows what the winner gets.  Probably just kudos from their friends, which is more than it’s worth anyhow!

It might make you think that if you were to get enough tattoos, maybe you too could become a rock star.  Obviously it wouldn’t be an overnight thing since your tattoos can’t be placed overnight.  Or at least not enough tattoos to become rockstar-worthy, which is a good thing because while you’re taking the time to get enough tattoos to be a rocker, you can also spend some time with singing lessons or learning to play an instrument while your tats heal.  That way, when all your tats are ready to show the public and the cover of Rolling Stone, you might have some kind of musical talent to back you up incase nobody likes your skin art.

Or, go out and get yourself a load of tattoos just because you like tattoos.  Who says you have to be a rockstar to have tattoos?  Then, once you’re all tattooed up and looking like a rockstar, go out and have a good time.  And if you have some musical talent to go along with your look, go for it!  Or just have a good time playing by yourself and jamming with friends and enjoying your tats.

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Red Hot Tattoos

Even Sylvester Stallone, star of the many Rocky series of movies, enjoys the occasional tattoo.  In this particular picture, he is showing off a portrait style tattoo with the image of his wife.  Getting a portrait tattoo done is risky business.  If you have seen some of the other portrait tattoos placed onto people, you would know why.  Sly’s tattoo looks pretty good, however.

The problem with portrait tattoos is that portraits are hard to draw realistically on paper alone, let alone trying to draw one on someones skin while holding a heavy vibrating needle in the process.  Lifelike portraits take a great deal of skill to draw and even if that artist is able to recreate one perfectly on paper, there’s no telling if they can recreate it again on the skin.  That’s why choosing the perfect tattoo artist to do your portrait is very important.  Make sure to check many samples of their portrait type tattoos and, if available, match them up against the pictures they used as a reference.
Animal portraits of a favorite pet or breed might be an easier choice, since many animals share similar traits and can be easily duplicated on paper and in ink on a canvas of human skin.  Of course the artists work should still be looked at closely before deciding if you want them to do your pet’s portrait.  There’s no sense getting a tattoo that looks like a cat when you were trying to get a portait of your bulldog placed on your shoulder.

Another way to accomplish an acceptable tattoo of a person would be to have it cartoonized.  This way the picture does not have to look realistic or human, somewhat like a caricature.  Cartoonized images are easier to do tattoos of, even to do images on paper first, and can be pleasing to the eye as well, without requiring the intense detail that a realistic portrait or picture requires.

Having an accurate image to work from is also important when getting a portrait done as a tattoo.  If the picture is too small or not enough detail is present, it will be difficult for the artist to make a quality tattoo from that picture.  Even more difficult would be to bring along the person of interest, especially if that person happened to be a baby.  A lot of people like to have an image of their newborn baby placed somewhere on their body.  A significant other might sit around for an hour or three while you have their face tattooed on your body but that might ruin the surprise, don’t you think?  Just take a picture.  They say pictures last longer anyway so you might as well have a long lasting tattoo made from a long lasting picture.

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Its not Adrienne but it will do

With so many people getting tattoos these days, walking into a tattoo parlor and picking a tat design off the wall for your newest ink work can lead to you having the same tattoo as someone else on the planet.  Tattoos are somewhat mainstream now which means, if you go to a parlor to have them place one of their designs on your body, chances are you will not end up being unique.  This is where homemade tattoos come into play.

With a homemade tattoo, even if you happen to use a design that you have seen on the internet and copied, there’s a good chance your image or tattoo will come out unique and different.  Especially if the person doing that tattoo for you is not a professional.
Homemade tattoo guns are also available or at least the instructions on how to build them are available.  For just a few dollars, you can throw together a tattoo gun pretty quickly with a motor, some ink, and a few items that might already be laying around your house.  Of course the quality of the tattoo is limited to not only the skill and experience of the tattoo artist but also it is limited by the quality of the tattoo gun.  So if you’re planning on doing this in the privacy of your own home, or your non-professional tattoo artist friend’s home, make sure you at least attempt to put together a decent homemade tattoo gun.

With enough practice, even a homemade tattoo can end up looking pretty decent.  It might even lead the homemade tattoo practitioner to become a legitimate artist, using real inks and real tattoo guns.  After all, every tattoo artist had to start somewhere, right?

The inks that are used can be real tattoo inks or they can be inks straight from a pen in your desk, although the tattoo inks will probably last longer and look better overall.  Who knows what prison inks are made with, probably ashes from cigarettes and anything else they can come up with that will dye the skin.

If you are afraid to practice on yourself and leave possible permanent damage or infection as the only evidence, you can always build the tattoo gun and then practice on fruit.  They say practicing on oranges and pears is a great way to get some experience holding the gun and drawing with it.  If you’re not afraid to make a mess of yourself, by all means go right ahead and start sticking yourself with that homemade needle.  Just make sure you’re clean about it and you take pics and send them in so the whole world can look at it.  Designs are readily available everywhere you look on the internet, or you might be able to create something decent on your own.

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Homie