Getting ink, it’s something we’ve all thought about doing. Some of us may have even actually gone under the needle. The most amazing thing about tattoo artistry is its permanence. I mean they found skin art on that mummified hunter they dug up way up in the Alps. Yeah, you can get tattoos “lasered” off but that’s a pain in the ass. For the most part, tattoos are going to be with you forever, through good times and bad, 24/7, all-year long until you start pushing up those proverbial daisies.
That means you damn-well better make your tattoo a good one. We’ve seen plenty of heinous tattoos, full of questionable artistic endeavor and perhaps most egregious of all, with un-rectifiable misspellings. That’s gotta hurt in more ways than one. Since we’re all car nuts here, the question for today is, if you were going to get an auto-related tattoo—which why would you not?—what would be the subject matter for that tat?
Image Autosaur
Hooniverse Asks: If You Were Going to Get an Auto-Related Tattoo, What Would it Be?
By Robert Emslie
Apr 18, 2017
Jeff Glucker
I would never let anyone scribble on me. The closest thing I have to a tattoo is a small black dot on my left index finger where I jabbed a ball point pen in by accident 20 years ago. But, to answer your question:
https://www.corvettemods.com/assets/images/600460.jpg
Corvette crossed flags, on upper arm.
Here is a handy chart for tattoos:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/10/01/4b/10014b803dc877e276a3bb05cb7ca571.jpg
If I were going by volume owned, I suppose I’d have to get a Honda “H” badge. But those purchases were based on the head, not the heart (even the CBR250R, since I got it as a more logical first bike for insurance and learning instead of the CBR500R).
But I’ll never get a tattoo, so it’s kind of a moot point. The Mercedes three-pointed star feels like something a rapper would get (NTTAWWT).
A scar on my forehead from where a loose alternator popped out from a heap at pick n’ pull as I lay underneath scavenging wiring. Oh, wait …
Much like P161911, I’m not a tattoo guy. And much like P161911, if I had to get some ink, it’d be a small logo trim piece – although I’d pick this one
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1c905610665d321eb04faf9c8095d4a603e5b06b0a4b5fa7e0e0ed5579f26b32.jpg
http://cdn.content.compendiumblog.com/uploads/user/dd21c83e-2275-4cfc-a335-2e40857d1df2/0fed519f-cb02-43ce-9ac1-6e3a589b8078/Image/b0ef09d1721da3069e4cc4d7eb516db8.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f49fe26614219d89dd203b6096d6dd09e0d6047335b90460e453ee5a96752c14.jpg You can count me out of the bodily ink-and-paint club too. Tattoos were only for drunken sailors on shore leave when I was in my 20s. However, if I was so inclined, I think some Mooneyes would be cool.
That was my second choice.
The Suzuki Gamma logo because my RG250 Gamma got me into bikes and it’s roughly my first initial. I could add the RG as well, for ‘riginal gammaster but that’d be a bit much.
http://raresportbikesforsale.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/rg-riight.jpg
Not a tattoo guy but my grand dad was….
If we were a little drunk and he was helping me pick it out, this would be the obvious choice
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8acdad1411c54fa5a1ef61b24836d8ec4d02eb7913aa7a67efc57263ee8a71c0.jpg
I’d take a cue from our dear Mr. Haining and get an avian tattoo that I have absolutely no specific connection to based on life experience.
http://tanshanomi.com/temp/golden-eagle-tattoo.png
EDIT: The only thing I’ve actually ever seriously considered is a winged wheel, but it would have to be a very specific design: a modern tire on a 7-spoke Lester mag wheel with very stylized, vertical art deco wings. I’d have to create it myself.
In case any of you don’t understand the reference to Haining…
http://hooniverse.info/2014/01/23/the-trans-am-and-being-an-english-redneck/
https://i0.wp.com/hooniverse.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/20140123_065342.jpg?resize=350%2C286
I’m quite moved that you should think of me.
I’m delighted to be infamous in at least some small way.
I find them interesting on other people, but can not for the life of me think of what piece of art (in the best case scenario) I’d want more or less permanently associated with me as a person. If someone (exceedingly strange) put a gun to my head and forced me to get one, I think I’d go for a more visually attractive mechanical bit than anything brand associated, like so…
http://image.superchevy.com/f/10910521+w640+h640+q80+re0+cr1+st0/0901chp_19_z%2Bwhipple_supercharger_383_small_block_chevy_engine_build%2Binside_look_of_rotors.jpg
You win.
I rather like that as a tattoo idea.
I’d get the shift pattern of the car my dad taught me to drive in on my right wrist. Easy to cover up with a watch if needed (lefty here) and not overly obvious, but still with deep personal meaning.
The geometric shapes probably don’t mean anything, but at least it looks artsy and doesn’t make me look like I wanna be in a biker gang and/or make a lot of life decisions drunk. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8743f2742ef9c0a86d8603840c404183ac9adc173d9aa5a1d08e0326243bba6b.jpg
Always liked the ” Winged Tire” design.
Here’s my crude, 3-minute sketch of the “winged wheel” version I’d like…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4df74743228ecdb081519fe6830fe3e453e51ad508c97fa4f586372de6ca31f7.jpg
I have a wicked scar on my right hand from a piece of sheet metal that I was forming to be a Ford lower panel on my truck.( Michigan salt victim) got it sewn up and finished the job.
Being a bleak blanket, a tribal in Martini colors?
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–DX13mdSJ–/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/hsxh1bjxckmayaspr37y.png
That’s a smashing idea!
Martini on one arm, Gulf on the other.
I guess John Player Special would require a LOT of black ink…
Unless you have deep black skin, then you’d only need some golden lineage. I don’t know if there is ink like that, but that would be really cool.
(I’d use the theme but restrain of using the actual JPS script.)
Or:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/da/85/80/da8580f8d15eac14c57393c6726e6dd9.jpg
Probably a sweet turbo.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5180/5589793138_46925d90db_z.jpg
There must be an alternate explanation for this.
I’d get a charge out of that.
I knew that that pic would generate an alternate response.
Most tattoo designs I can think of, I’d rather have on a t-shirt.
That said, I’m thinking of some combination of “jinba ittai” in Japanese script, a silhouette of a Miata PPF, and an MR2 eagle. Guess which cars I drive? 😉
http://img07.deviantart.net/1544/i/2009/026/e/c/mazda_na_miata_by_dyummy.jpg
http://exomotive.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Exocet-Mazda-Miata-PPF.jpg
http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/06/Toyota-MR2-Robot-Eagle-2-Picture-courtesy-of-Murilee-Martin-550×417.jpg
PS: Jinba Ittai means “the horse and rider as one,” and it’s the marketing phrase used to sell the MX-5 in Japan. Sort of like “Fahrvergnügen.”
http://www.dubuddha.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Blackwork-Crossed-Pistons-Tattoo-by-elias.casco_-510×638.jpg
I’m yet another in the “would probably never get inked” camp, but if I did, it’d probably be something small, simple, and lacking brand allegiance – maybe (a) piston(s) over my heart or something.
Obviously…something Big Daddy Ed Roth. Probably Rat Fink, but I’d take a fresh look at the entire catalog before choosing.