My Tattoos  

Every tattoo has a story. Every tattoo has a meaning as well. I figured i'd put up some pictures of my tattoos and share the stories that produced them and the meaning of them as well.

The newest of my two comic related tattoos is a Green Lantern tattoo. I got it on my left forearm. I got this one with two friends of mine. The reason for this one was two fold. The first being that I enjoy the Green Lantern character and enjoy the Willpower idea behind the symbol. Having it on my forearm kept it in a place where I could easily see it and remind myself to keep strength in hard times.
The second reason and the more important reason to the other two guys was because we all used to use a bong we called Green Lantern. It was a homemade glass wine distiller that we hung a green glow stick in. It would light up the whole room while we got all lit up. I used to recite the GL oath before "recharging my ring" with it. We all loved that bong and had a lot of great times while using it and after using it.
Well, as all things of that nature seem to do it got broken one day. My buddy Matt broke it and thus his tattoo has a nice crack in it. I'll try to get a pic of his up sometime soon. Maybe tomorrow. What's sweet is all of our tattoos have slight differences a lot like the GL Corps and their uniforms. Getting these done together created our own GL Corps and linked us for lives as friends.

My first tattoo, and my favorite, is my Joker tattoo. It's clearly based on Brian Bolland's work from his and Alan Moore's Killing Joke. It is a panel straight from the comic. I even kept the HAHAHA in the background. You can't really see it in the picture as well as you can in person. The HAHA portion goes from a dark orange to red as you work toward the waist of the Joker. The HAHA is actually the negative space and so the spacing between the letters is what is actually colored.
I took liberties with the panel and changed the color of the suit. Instead of the black suit I made it the traditional Joker purple, green and orange. I also added the bola and removed the standard style tie. The only thing it's missing, I wish I had added it as well, is the deadly flower on the lapel.
This tattoo was something I got because I enjoyed the story it came from and I have always loved the Joker. I grew up watching the old Adam West Batman show and fell in love with the Joker there. Then at five years old the first Tim Burton Batman came out and my Dad took me to see it. Deal was done at that point. The Joker was insane and totally unruly. For a kid it doesn't get much better.
As this was my first tattoo I was super fucking nervous. I think I took like 6 nervous pees before I even sat down. To get myself chilled out I smoked a bowl before I got there. (As you can tell I used to smoke a decent amount of pot before I was married with child. That's all changed now) The artist wasn't to into the tattoo at first and I could tell. After I sat down and he got the equipment going he started playing some tunes. Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon came on and "Speak to Me/Breathe played. During that a maniacal laugh sounds. The artist smiled and said to me, "Ok, now i'm ready for this. Now I want to do something wicked!". Now this is something that I will have for the rest of my life. I love it and I enjoy carrying this masterpiece with me to the grave.

Well those are my tats and the stories behind them. Anyone else got comic tattoos? If so leave a rant with a link to a pic and i'll put it up here on the Asylum. Or just email a pic to me along with a story about it. Looking forward to some tats Inmates!