35. Let’s Get Tattoos!

So yeah I’m just sitting there
working on some new designs

when I get a call from some guy
says he ‘looks after’ the Gunners

and the guys wanna come down
for ink. I’m like, yeah, whatever.

But sure enough an hour later all
five of them mooch into the store.

They’re drunk, or high, or maybe
drunk and high and even though

I have a sign on the wall saying “the
mgmt. reserves the right to refuse to

tattoo anyone who it believes to be
intoxicated”, I make an exception.

Besides, everyone on The Strip is drunk or
high and if I turned them all away, I’d go bust.

So I spent all day working on those guys and
it was a cast-iron blast, a dream come true.

Truthfully, it was pretty standard stuff, easy
work - the usual array of skulls and flowers.

Axl went for this logo he designed himself
with the slogan ‘Victory or Death’ beneath it.

Slash had a caricature of his own face on his
right bicep; a mop of hair wearing a top hat.

Duff opted for some sort of barbed wire arm band
and Steven had some tangled rose and dagger thing.

Izzy just that there blank-faced, silent, smoking
and going to the bathroom every five minutes.

The guys were real cool though. They took a real interest
in the art form, gave me a few bumps of blow, then left.