Why a skull and bat wings?
There weren’t many designs to choose from. I wanted to physically manifest what was inside of me, to be able to represent it on the outside. But I couldn’t find the right design. I didn’t want any roses. I wanted something more macabre. After I lived with that skull and crossbones for a couple of years, I realized that wasn’t for me, either. So I eventually had it covered over. You have three phoenixes tattooed on your body now, don’t you? Why did you choose them? A while after I had been into tattooing, I discovered this person who was tattooing in San Francisco at the time, Don Ed Hardy. I think he is retired now. I really admired his work. I still love his work. Anyway, my phoenixes represent me and my life and my thoughts about dying, how I’d died a bunch of mini-deaths during my lifetime. They are symbolic of disappointments or bad choices or different paths that I took, and you know, just the things that life kind of does to a person. And you learn by these things, and then you a
