Tom Delonge’s Dense Sleeve Tattoo and Other Arm Blank

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Koi-Fish-Ink-Artist

Tom Delonge has a good idea – one arm with a dense colorful sleeve tattoo and the other arm without any ink whatsoever. It stretches to the back of his neck and in front of the shoulder. Sure, he could have gone with both arms splattered with colored ink but this way, the one sleeve draws more attention. And it looks like he had fun developing the one sleeve, who knows where he’ll go with it next. Lot’s of flesh left over.

The Blink 182 band member has a few tats related to music. He has a punk rocker with a mohawk on his shoulder that he says might be Native American and it says southern California and then punk rock beneath. The UFOs below that are bombing his elbow with hellfire. Then he has some more outer space with pyramids and rocket ships. Then a mummy and a snake? Even in Tom’s opinion the whole construction does make much sense all together, its just a hodge podge mess of items scrapped together. He’s also got his wife’s name – Jennifer, on his neck.

Robert De Niro Tattooed in Cape Fear

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Koi-Fish-Ink-Artist

Robert De Niro has only one real tattoo – a panther – and there are no photos of it and he’s not saying where its located but we’ve heard its on his shoulder. However, we have had a chance to see De Niro all tatted up thanks to the movie Cape Fear. These tattoos were meant to elicit an effect on the audience and they do a decent job making you imagine what this jail bound character must be like – a tough, psycho bad guy. De Niro, as usual, put in some good acting work on the film so that helps too. Its a decent thriller movie with some other good actors. On his back is a enormous cross with scales on it. Then he’s got an ugly heart with the name Loretta above it, some lightning bolts on his stomach and then many other mostly ugly and crude tats on his arms and shoulders befitting of his character. These are examples of what not to get tattooed unless you’re bored in prison. Getting up there in years, De Niro might be passed the days where he’s gonna run out to the tattoo parlor to get a girl’s name or a cross inked on him so this movie might be the only time he’ll be visible with tattoos.

Christian Vieri’s Japanese Character Tattoos

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Koi-Fish-Ink-Artist

Christian Vieri is an Italian football player. At one time (in 1999 with Lazio) he was the highest played in the world. Even now only a few players have been payed more. He also had a notable career playing with the Italian national team in several World Cup matches and scoring more than a few goals. However, he missed the 2008 World Cup when Italy won the title, he had already retired from the national team.

Christian has some tats spaced out on his arms. Interestingly he says that when he decided to get the Japanese characters (kanji) done he just went in a picked out what he thought looked good and didn’t even ask what they meant. Oh well, he picked some decent ones – thunder, strength, eternity, heart and mind… and we’re not sure what else and if they fit together somehow. And when he later found out what they meant he was pleased. Those are good ones for a football striker especially.

On his right shoulder he has a star design that started out small and then grew to a more elaborate version. Below that is an arrow pointing forward. On his left should he has a red sun that has a jumping dolphin in front of it.

Brendon Urie Piano Keyboard Tattoo

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Koi-Fish-Ink-Artist

Brendon Urie the 24 year old Mormon musician from Nevada and from the band Panic! can apparently play every instrument in existence (piano, guitar, cello, violin, accordion, wind instruments, etc, oh yeah he’s the vocalist and songwriter too). One of those instruments is the piano so it makes sense that he represents his musical talents with giant piano keys on his arm. On the elbow it blends into a nice big flower and he has a little red coloring on either side of the piano keys. So what we would suggest for him is to keep adding instruments into a kind of orchestra mural with flying musical notes in different colors coming out of trumpets and violins and whatnot. His whole body covered in a consistent musical theme would be something unique he could do instruments in different styles and/or famous musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Ozzy, Beethoven, etc. But anyway the piano keyboard is a good start and we’ll see where he gets to with it.

Aaron Carter’s Original Tattoos

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Koi-Fish-Ink-Artist

Aaron Carter is a teen pop singer, brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter. At 23, he has already been through a month long Betty Ford Center treatment program. He has been busy adding tattoos to his collection. At last count there were 8 and each of them is claimed to be originally designed. For the most part none of them features any color of note. There is a little blue used on the sun blades on his back but the rest are only black ink on white skin. We can see the retro purity of that decision but at the same time a little color can add a lot to the art.

The most visible tat is the angel which covers the top of his left forearm. The angel has slightly Manga looking cartoonish features, a fifties hairstyle and some rather conservative clothing. Her feet disappear into clouds and her wings look like natural bird wings.

We’re not sure how he can claim the nautical star on the inside of his right forearem is an original design, that is pretty commonly seen, supposedly because it has a number seven encircled in the middle of it.

Now on his back there is something interesting. What is it? A skull or a sun? Blue blades of ice or flames? It is a bit sloppy, shapeless and with wrinkles on the forehead. This space is a nice large spot in the middle of his back and there could be some improvements to this sub par tattoo. We would definitely like to see a re-work on that one. How old was he when he got that anyway it looks like he might have been 12 when it first appeared, maybe a twelve year old drew it.

Kobe Bryant’s Crown and Wings Tattoos

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Koi-Fish-Ink-Artist

Apparently Kobe’s crown tattoo on his upper arm doesn’t have anything to do with him being the king of basketball. That’s good because he’s not the king of the NBA anymore even if he was at one time. He was definitely crowned champion 5 times but you can’t give him all the credit for that because LA has had some great teams. Some credit is due however and we’ll leave it to him to show us what he can come up with in his remaining years. Next on his arm appears the name of his wife Vanessa. This appeared sometime after he had some trouble with extramarital relations and the police in Colorado. He probably wanted to re-affirm his commitment to his wife with that one. Then, he has a pair of angel wings and “Psalm XVII” beneath that. Psalm 17 talks about faith in the Lord his strength. Above his wrist he has the name of his daughter written.

Chris Brown Steadily Adding Tattoos

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Koi-Fish-Ink-Artist

Christopher Maurice Brown was born May 5, 1989. The actor, dancer, singer and songwriter made his debut at the age of 16. He recorded songs titled, “Kiss Kiss” “Forever” and “I Can Transform Ya”. His hit single “Run it” sold over 2 million copies. But then he may be more well-known for mistreating his girlfriend Rihanna.

His first tattoo was one of Christ with musical notes acknowledging him for the gift to sing. The second one Chris got when he was 14 it was the letter “C” and next the letter “B”. The latest tattoo Chris Brown got was a skull with an halo. The most profound tattoo is the ninjas and darkness. Chris says it represents his past and the struggles he had to conquer within himself. He has been getting a lot of tattoo work recently. You can see the progression in the pics, some before, some more recent. His entire upper chest and neck is now inked. He has a heart (with a knife through it no less), some wings and some flowers too. The arms are a little too densely inked to make out what he’s got there.

Brandon Boyd – Mandala, Om, Flying Things and a Peacock

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Koi-Fish-Ink-Artist

California native Brandon Boyd is a musician and visual artist (mostly a painter). He is best known of course as the singer for the band Incubus. As an artist we expect some decent tattoos from him and truth be told he has designed some decent ones. In red, in ancient Buddhist script, he has written the sacred chant “Om Mani Padme Hum” that is translated in various ways. The choice of red here works well in contrast with the rest of the tats on the same arm and in contrast with his other arm. Continuing with the Indian theme, he has a flowery mandala on the other side of the Om, with some more script characters inside the flower petals. Towards his wrist, he has some thick circles-within-circles design. And there is another one of a stylized fish in a circle.

On the other arm is an elaborate peacock and a portrait of what looks like a monk contemplating something. On his back he has a big flying pyramid with the “all seeing eye” in it, kind of like the dollar bill except this one has big wings. We leave it for you to speculate about what this symbolizes. Below that is another winged, flying creature. The question we have is why is the flying creature so close to the flying pyramid, smashed up right under the wings of the pyramid? There seems to be more space available. One possibility is that he plans to put more tattoos below and to the right of the pyramid making a rounded symmetrical shape out of the 3-4 tattoos. That might work.

Travis Barker – Cadillac, Boom Box, Flags and Full Color Tattoos

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Koi-Fish-Ink-Artist

If anyone deserves a tattoo review here is the man. California native, aged 35, he is well on his way to filling up the body canvas. With his wealth of designs, he blesses the covers of tattoo magazines. This is none other than the punk pop drummer Travis Barker, drummer for Blink 182. He has also recently released a solo album Give the Drummer Some where he mixes it up with some other players in his music genre. It has some heavy riffs, hip hop raps, and don’t forget the drums and beats.

Well, this drummer has got some ink. Great color combinations in swirling intricate designs pretty evenly spaced out across his torso and arms up to the side of his head. No doubt he has been taking advantage of good quantity and quality of tattoo artists in the LA area. Facing forward most prominent is the stereo boob box on his stomach, Marilyn Monroe in the center of his neck and the checkered flags on either side of Marilyn. Just below “can I say” is the Cadillac emblem. Cadillac is also written on his side in letters as big as possible. “Hope” on his lower back is written as large possible too. On his right shoulder he has a woman’s face with her blue hair swirling into other organic designs. The dominant themes are scripts, stars and the colors.

Steven Tyler – Bare Minimum of Tats for a Rocker

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Koi-Fish-Ink-Artist

As far as tats go, Steven is a bit of a conservative rocker. Is he even known as a rocker these days or has everyone forgot Aerosmith now that he’s got the American Idol gig? He’s only got designs on one shoulder and on the other bicep. The one on his right shoulder is kind of a disorganized mess of an eye with a star and some squiggly lines. He’s a 70s rocker and in those days a tattoo or two was good enough and he hasn’t updated. If I were him I would put some fresh designs on top of that mess and add a little to it. A good artist could fix it up good. You would think that in those days when he admits himself that we was in way over his head abusing various substances he would have made a few tattoo mistakes but looks like he somehow avoided that. His daughter Mia is much more serious, she is steadily covering all available flesh with tats.

And now for a few fan portrait tattoos. Some people like him enough to get his portrait done apparently. Here’s one complete with a tattoo of Steven’s arm tattoo.

And what’s this one phantom of the opera Steven? or a black and white Steven Tyler cookie? I’d give this idea a C- grade, there have been worse.