“I want to be a tattooed lady, dedicated as I am to art. Character’s bold, complex, and shady will write my memoirs across my heart…” ~ The Magnetic Fields 

.

I love tattoos.

I love the way they look. I love the way they offer us an opportunity to express ourselves through art on our bodies. I love the excitement of the actual experience of getting tattooed, and I love the way they can tell a story about our lives like a small stamp of time etched on our skin.

Tattoos mean different things to different people. For some, getting a tattoo may simply be a fun, spontaneous act of frivolity—and that’s perfectly okay.

For others, each tattoo on their body may have deep, profound meaning—and this is a beautiful thing. Our bodies are our own, and the way we choose to decorate them is a unique freedom that varies from individual to individual.

But if you do have a tattoo, it’s likely that you love it—and you’ve got that itch to get another sometime.

So, for those of us who truly love and appreciate the ink on our bodies (and also for those talented artists who offer this service), this is for you. This is for us.

This is for everyone who wants to celebrate their ink and the unique, ancient art of tattoos.

~

“Tattoo” by The Who. (Full disclosure: I am super obsessed with The Who right now, so naturally this one is at the top of the list, heh.)

“Swallow Tattoo” by The Long Blondes.

“Your Name Is Tattooed on My Heart” by Screeching Weasel.

“Tattooed Love Boys” by The Pretenders.

“Jailhouse Tattoo” by The Tombstones.

“Tattoo” by Petra Hayden. (Okay, so this is actually a cover version of The Who song at the top of this list, but it’s actually the first version of the song that I ever heard, and it’s a pretty awesome, a cappella rendition.)

~

**Author’s note: This marks the fourth installment of this weekly(ish) column. It is my pleasure and privilege to offer some fun, light-hearted mini-compilations for your listening enjoyment.

So, as this side of our virtual turntable scratches to an end, I shall lift the needle up…until we meet again.

Catch you on the flip side.

~

Relephant:

Getting Inked: The Deeper Meanings of Tattoos.

~

Author: Yoli Ramazzina
Images: Unsplash/Matheus Ferrero; Unsplash/Annie Spratt
Copy editor: Lieselle Davidson