Inked Talk

Geek culture has gone mainstream. It isn’t hard to remember a time when video gamers and computer users were a small group of socially awkward guys who never got prom dates. These days, video games are just another form of entertainment, and computers are ubiquitous, so it is no surprise at all that geek tattoos are becoming more and more commonplace.

A quick stroll through BMEINK.com’s Geek Tattoos section shows that there are plenty of video game tattoos around, although some characters and games are far more popular than others. Mario and his cast of friends are easily the most prominent video game tattoos on the site, while other classics like Pac Man enjoy some love there as well. Fan favorites like The Legend of Zelda are everywhere, with Triforce tattoos being the most popular theme from that game. Even newer games like Halo seem to have a strong following among the tattooed.

Are video game tattoos just another trend? Or are video games so mainstream now that tattoos were certain to follow?

Mario is a very popular candidate for video games tattoos. The Mario Brothers franchise has been successful across multiple platforms since Mario made his appearance as Jump Man in the arcade version of Donkey Kong in 1981. That means that anyone under age 35 grew up with one Mario video game or another - it’s no wonder that Mario tattoos are among the most common geek tattoos.

Like Mario, Pac Man is another very recognizable character. Although the Pac Man franchise is, for all intents and purposes, pretty darn dead, you’d be hard pressed to name a more merchandised video game in the early 1980s.

While Mario and Pac Man have stood the test of time and are very recognizable characters, the extreme success of a more modern game - Bungie’s Halo and its successors - has prompted some Halo fans to get tattoos of the characters or logos from the game.

Will Halo enjoy Mario’s longevity or Pac Man’s recognizability? Only time will tell, but that is a risk that anyone takes when they get pop culture related ink.

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Think spring!!

“Hell yeah, it hurts!”

Tattoos are painful. Anyone who says they aren’t was probably drunk when they got their ink. Those with high pain thresholds may describe the feelings as more akin to a scratch on a sunburn, but at the very least there is definitely a certain amount of discomfort associated with getting a tattoo.

This is always a fun conversation over a few drinks on a Friday night: whose tattoo hurt the most? Anyone with more than one tattoo probably has a tattoo “war story,” but is there any objective agreement on what tattoos hurt the most? Certainly everyone acknowledges that different people experience pain differently, but can’t we all agree that some places just hurt far more than others?

Fleshy spots like the thigh and the upper arm are probably safe spots for those who are afraid of a little pain. Bony areas are the ones that really bring the pain.

But what hurts the most? Is it the foot? The ankle? There is so little fat in these areas that the pain just has to be high.

How about the upper chest? The ribs? Again, these bony areas are among the worst as far as pain goes.

What about the hip?

One heavily tattooed tattoo artist I spoke to said that the tattoo on his head was by far the most painful.

Few people can confirm this, but the eyeball tattoo just has to be painful, and if it isn’t, at the very least it ranks high in the “ick” factor.

Readers - what was your most painful tattoo? Why do you think it was so bad?

The Associated Press brought a story from New Hampshire this past weekend about a man who had been illegally tattooing near Derry. Thirty-eight year old Glen Vincent was charged with three counts of illegal tattooing. Those weren’t his only charges, though, and the other charges are what led to his discovery and arrest. The illegal tattooing was uncovered when a middle school nurse noticed a “tramp stamp” tattoo on the back of one of the twelve year old students at her school.

Twelve is a bit young for a tramp stamp.

Vincent is also accused of tattooing the back and stomach of a sixteen year old.