Celebrity Ink - Brad Pitt

French quote "Absurdités de l'existence" meaning "life is absurd" around outer left arm.

Outline of Otzi the Iceman on left forearm.

Partner, Angelina Jolie's birthday, 06/04/75, in Khmer on lower left abdomen.

Largely unphotographed Sanskrit dedication for son Maddox on lower left back.

Lines on lower left back, often speculated to be diagram of the New Orleans levee banks, a tribute to those affected by Hurricane Katrina but is in fact the result of partner, Angelina Jolie drawing on his back one evening, Brad liking it and having it inked onto his back.

Source: Vanishing Tattoo, Crushable

Celebrity Ink - Angelina Jolie

Kanji for "courage" matching ex-husband Johnny Lee Miller on inner left forearm(lasered off).

Tennesee Williams quote,"a prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages" on inner left forearm.

Chinese dragon with "Billy Bob" for ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton (lasered off).

Latitude and longitude co-ordinates for her 6 children and partner Brad Pitt on upper left arm.

"know your rights" (the name of a song by The Clash) at nape of neck in gothic script.

Kanji for "death" on upper left shoulder (lasered off).

Buddhist Pali incantation in Khmer for adopted Cambodian son Maddox "May your enemies run far away from you. If you acquire riches, may they remain yours always. Your beauty will be that of Apsara. Wherever you may go, many will attend, serve and protect you, surrounding you on all sides." done by Thai artist Sompong Kanphai.

Arabic  script reading "strength of will" on inner right forearm.

Latin quote "Quod me nutrit me destruit", meaning "What nourishes me also destroys me" on lower abdomen.

Dragon on lower left abdomen, covered up with a solid black cross.

Tribal wings on lower back.

Tribal dragon tattoo on lower back covered up with traditional Bengal tiger also done by Sompong Kanphai in celebration of her Cambodian citizenship.

Roman numeral XIII (to note her lack of superstition) to which she later added V MCMXL, the date of a speech by Winston Churchill "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat"

Runic letter "H" for brother James Haven and ex-boyfriend Timothy Hutton.

Letter "M" on heel of right palm for late mother Marcheline Bertrand.

Swirls added to Roman numeral and lat-longitude tattoos.

Tattoo on right inner thigh only confirmed as a being a tattoo for partner Brad Pitt. Speculated thus far to say "Whiskey Bravo" the phonetic spelling for Brad's initials, William Bradley. 

"Death could come at any time", Angelina Jolie says. The tattoo is a strong reminder to live fully in the moment and never have regrets." (About her first tattoo of the Japanese Kanji for Death) "I didn't get the tattoo for the dark reason everyone thinks."


"Usually all my tattoos came at good times. A tattoo is something permanent when you've made a self-discovery, or something you've come to a conclusion about."


Jolie says her tiger tattoo is a favorite of her kids.  "They talk to it all the time.  They like to say hi to it and paint it with fingerpaints.  It's like a little friend."


"I dropped my pants in a tattoo parlor in Amsterdam. I woke up in a waterbed with this funky-looking dragon with a blue tongue on my hip. I realized I made a mistake, so a few months later I got a cross to cover it. When my pants hang low, it looks like I'm wearing a dagger!"

Sources: Mario Testino, Vogue March '04, Jan '07, Marie Claire Oct '10, Vanity Fair Jan '11, Reuters, Trish Talk

A Drop Of Tanya

Name: Tanya

Age: 30

Tell me about yourself: I work in the financial services industry for our insurance division. It's a job, and pays well (so I can get tattoos!) I feel like this is some dating website survey. I love long walks on the beach, my friends and family are super important to me, I love going to all the amazing restaurants has to offer. I consider myself a bit of a foodie. I'm inspired by people's compassion, loyalty and support. My friends accept me for who I am and still love me, even though sometimes I might not always do the right thing. I have a cat, he’s a crazy, special little guy. Seriously I don’t think he’s normal, but I love him anyway and he is my companion. Even when the little guy wakes me up in the middle of the night trying to start a fight with me.

How many tattoos do you have:
6

Age when you got your first tattoo:
18

Do you have a favourite tattoo
Not one favourite, they all have meaning to me

Any more tattoos planned?
Yes my back, no idea what I want, I keep changing my mind, I'm looking for an amazing artist that will just draw something for me, I’d like it to have some meaning but mainly I'm looking for a really feminine piece that suits my body and incorporates the other tattoos I have on my back already. Sounds easier than it actually is...struggling to find someone to collaborate with

Favourite style of tattooing?
I like them all, honestly. They each have their history and background and I find it all fascinating.


Have you ever felt judged, prejudiced against because of your tattoos?
A few guys have turned their noses up, but I don’t really care what other people think.


What is your tattoo story?
The arrow, aka my star sign (Sagittarius) was my first, I thought about it for SSSOOOO long, I honestly agonised over it, it's placement, it's meaning. EVERYTHING! I went and got it done at Highline Tattoo’s (St Kilda Junction) by this big gruff looking biker dude who was the sweetest person you ever met. A girlfriend of mine from high school came with me and I thought I was so cool and tough. At the time, I never thought I would get any more, and if I could do it again, I probably wouldn’t get the same thing. My family hated it, and my grandmother would have disowned me if she ever knew.


The female symbol was my next one, in my head I wanted the curvature of the tattoo to match the arrow, but it didn’t turn out that way. I went back to Highline Tattoo and the same guy to get it, this time my boyfriend came with me. The tattoo was to symbolise the women in my life and how much they mean to me.

The hearts on my wrist are for my grandmother who has passed away, her maiden name was Heart and she was born on the 4^th July so that's why there is four. This tattoo also didn’t turn out like the drawing I had, I kinda wish he had told me it was too small for the detail my drawing had, but now I like that it's not perfect. I love the location and the tattoo as a whole, every time I look at it, I laugh because my Grandmother would HATE it and the rebel in me finds it amusing to dedicate a tattoo to her.

The writing I got a few years ago, I got it backwards because it's a tattoo for me and not anyone else. Basically it's all the things I stand for, believe and are me.

The kisses on my shoulder, or as I so devastatingly realised after I got it done, Four X....FAIL!!! I have only had this a little while and was completely last minute and not thought out (clearly) I’ll probably get this covered or incorporated into my big back piece I plan on getting done. But it was meant to be from my favourite Jeff Buckley song, Lover, you should have come over. My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder, originally it was going to be one, higher up on my neck, but the chick didn’t want to do it so high, and I'm grateful for her guidance, but somehow it morphed into four of them. It has started my love affair with colour tattoos.

The writing on my foot; "begin with a single step", or as I lovingly refer to it "gin with sing e step". I love the location, it's a pity it's already fucked, I only got this in December last year for my 30^th so it's only 5mths old. I’ll be getting it touched up when I get my back done, and probably try and get it a bit higher so it doesn’t fade so quick (or at all). This one hurt like hell, plus I have a thing about people touching my feet, so it was a massive psychological battle for me to let this guy hold down my foot and then tattoo it...i got a nickname out of this one...Ole One Shoe, because afterwards we went to get a cider at a pub around the corner and I couldn’t put my shoe on, so I walked around the streets of Perth and into this pub with one shoe on and no one cared. God I love Perth!

Tattoos For The Screen

Tattoos are as prevalent in current society as they are not only because of the hundreds of people who used their skin to pioneer and parade tattoos, who forced society out of its comfort zone and compelled it to view tattoos as something more than a freakshow attraction.

In the way that it does, TV and cinema have thrust an idea upon the general public and forced people to look upon their idols, and teenage idols adorned with artwork that adds to their character, makes them tougher, rougher round the edges. Gives them more believability and their performance more clout. The prevalence of tattooing in mass media has ingrained a feeling to a large percentage of people, not least my generation that tattooing is sexy. We're not entirely sure why we find it so attractive. Its not necessarily the fact that going through the pain of tattooing make you tough, different people's pain thresholds allow for different kinds of pain and some of the most delicate people I know have ink. It would not be absurd to suggest that the images in our minds of beautiful people displaying intricate and beautiful art on the perfectly toned bodies lay in the recess of our brains popping their tattooed selves our of our subconscious every time tattooing is mentioned. 

These people are our own examples of how tattooing can be beautiful, spectacular and character building so I give you some of the best tattoos given to us by the big and small screen.

Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield in Prison Break.

Brad Pitt as Mickey O'Neil in Snatch

Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai Luzhin in Eastern Promises

Russell Brand as Aldous Snow in Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Angelina Jolie as Fox in Wanted

Matthew McConaughey as Denton Van Zan in Reign of Fire

Norman Reedus and Sean Patrick Flannery as Connor and Murphy MacManus in the Boondock Saints

Eric Bana as Nero in Star Trek

Cinema.com, Fyeah Hollywood, dreamgirldiaries, IMDB, Google Images,

Celebrity Ink - Russel Brand

Right inner bicep - sanskrit which reads "Anuugacchati Pravaha" - "Go With The Flow"

A lot of people think that Russell has a great number of tattoos due to his various movie roles, particularly Forgetting Sarah Marshall. All of these tattoos were fakes and were applied for the role. He and his wife, Katy Perry have matching sanskrit tattoos in the same place.

Source: Rolling Stone Magazine US (June 2010 issue), The Mirror

Celebrity Ink - Freja Beha Erichsen

r"This world tonight is mine" PJ Harvey quote around right wrist.

"Serendipity Is Me" on back of right upper arm.

"this too shall pass" on right inner bicep.

"redemption" below left inner elbow.

Colt "Peacemaker" revolver on left inner bicep.

3 yellow filled circles on left inner wrist.

Solid inverted triangle behind the neck.

"float" on left side of neck.

Small solid star on left upper ribs.

"M" later covered with a lightning bolt on upper right ribs.

Outline of a circle in dashes behind right ear.

Cross on right earlobe.

Lines around left middle finger.

"sorry" on left ring fingertip (unconfirmed)

"Nobody has minded so far, I don't think," Erichsen says, "but then they weren't in obvious places at the beginning. They were easily covered. Still, I did make a deal with my agent about a year ago: she said I could get as many tattoos as I wanted as long as I didn't cut my hair."

 "this world tonight is mine", which comes from a PJ Harvey song ("My version of carpe diem"), and the phrase "this too shall pass" ("Obviously I was going through some stuff when I had that done." What stuff? "Just personal stuff"), as well as the word "float" ("as in float through life, don't sink") on the side of her neck. "I just like getting them done," Erichsen explains. "I like the whole process, especially coming up with something you want, which never takes me long. Like the revolver. That's not a heavy symbol for me. I like guns and I think the design is pretty, and once I have an idea I have to go there. I'm definitely hooked on getting tattoos."

Font used in "float" and"redemption" tattoos is Windsong


Source: Google Images

A Drop Of Rachel

Name: Rachel Cooper

Age: 24

Tell me about yourself:

I'm an assistant manager for Michael Hill jewellers in Darwin. About to start studying in HR management in my very little spare time.

Am originally from NSW South Coast, but have lived in Victoria for a few years and currently reside in Darwin.

I love travelling, Ive been to USA, England, France, Thailand and New Caledonia. Im going to Canada and back to America later in the year.

I love the outdoors and wildlife, dream in life- to see a moose in the wild (long story). So last year I went on a hiking trip through Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Glacier National Park. Saw every animal imaginable- including wild grizzly bears but absolutely no moose. So even more of a reason to go back this year.

I'm lucky to have a great lifestyle, I enjoy my job (playing with diamonds all day, what girl wouldn't), a great boyfriend, and living in Darwin I have sunshine every day so days off consist of laying by the pool and relaxing in this very laid back city.

How many tattoos do you have?:

I have 4 tattoos, 3 of which I strongly dislike and got done quite young as a spur of the moment thing, luckily they are quite small- a heart on my hip, a cherub on my lower back with my last name 'Cooper' below it. The only one I love is my pin up girl on my calf.

Age when you got your first tattoo:

15, the tiny heart. I just wanted to see what it was like and my friend was getting one so I lied about my age.

Do you have a favourite tattoo:

My pin up girl, she is wearing 2 peacocks as a dress. On my calf.

Any more tattoos planned?:

Only one more, I will eventually get around to a small simple one behind my ear, either an extremely simple eiffle tower or just the outlining of a swallow. What ever it is it'll have no detailing.

Favourite style of tattooing…background?:

I dont really have any favourite styles. Im not a fan of southern crosses but thats because every second person has one.

Any other modifications? Piercing etc.?:

When I was a teenager I loved piercings so I had my labret, both beauty spots, nose, belly button, tragus and ears. Never at the same time though, Id just mix it up every so often. I now only have my ears though.

Have you ever felt judged, prejudiced against because of your tattoos:

Not at all, I get asked alot about my girl, as there are people out there that think its more of a male style tattoo due to her showing some boob. Most of the time its good feed back though as her colouring is quite vibrant.

What is your tattoo story?:

My cherub and heart dont really have any meaning behind them I was 15 when I got the heat and 16 when I got the cherub. There was no thought behind them and I regret the cherub as its really bad work.  The heart is so small that its not noticeable anyway.

'Cooper' was also a spur of the moment decision, though it was at 2am at Kings Cross after a few too many beverages. I was 19 and having a great night out so decided to get a tatt, I'm not a fan of that one either, I dont mind that its my last name but more so the workmanship and where it is.

My pin up girl was done in Haight Ashbury, San Francisco. I had been thinking about getting a larger tat for a while and have always loved the look of pin up girls and I love peacocks so when I saw her I knew she was the one.

It took 4 hours and hurt like hell as my calf kept on cramping up and twitching.

She has alot of meaning to me because she symbolizes when I was in America, and it was whilst I was there that I decided to completely change my life. When I got back to Australia I left my job, my mortgage and finished up a very unhappy mistake of a marriage and moved up to Darwin. 

So every time I look at her I can remember the strength I had to do all that and now live an amazingly happy life with someone I love.