Musical Ink

Nemrég jelent meg Musical Ink címen egy könyv, amely Jon Blacker fényképész portéit tartalmazza zenészekről, és az ő tetoválásaikról. A könyvben szerepel Chad is, és elmeséli a lábán lévő polip történetét.

Annak aki nem látná a szöveget jól:

I got this tattoo in 1991 by Henk Schiffmacher, aka Hanky Panky, a very famous dutch artist, painter, tattoo artist in Amsterdam. I was on tour with the Chili Peppers and we were playing in Holland, and I had gotten a couple of tattoos from Henk but I wanted a really big piece and thought it would be great to get one on my leg. I’m a big fan of scubadiving and under sea life and that wonderful world down below. I told Henk I want an octopus, can we draw something up, a really cool tribal octopus? ‘He said, yeah, yeah, yeah’ and drew something up and I get to his shop and he’s all ready to tattoo me.

About a month or so earlier I had a hernia operation on the right side, down in the groin are and I had jumped out on tour a little too quick so it didn’t really have a good chance to heal so it was still like kind of an open wound, so to speak and playing the drums every night certainly didn’t help it to heal.

So he’s shaving my leg, getting ready and I see the tattoo thing and I’m thinking that’s going to be awesome. He getting ready to tattoo me, he’s got the gun out, I’ve got my pants down and he looks and sees the little bandage and he says, ‘what’s that?’ So I tell him I just had a hernia operation and it’s just healing you know, it’s no big deal. He says, ‘well let me see it’. I open it up and he looks at it and he goes, ‘Oh my God, that’s like an open wound. If I put that much ink into your leg right there, it’s gonna blow up. Your leg’s just going to get infected and you’re probably going to get gangrene and they’re going to have to cut your leg off. I was like, ‘No, no. It’s okay. I was so excited to get the tattoo, that I was like, ‘I don’t care, it’s fine. Don’t worry.’ He’s like, ‘I can’t. I can’t do it. I can’t. I can’t. It’s not safe.’ I was all ready to get tattooed and I didn’t. I was so disappointed. Of course, I had to wait until it healed, and I came back and he did it, and I think it’s my favorite tattoo. I just love it. And whenever I take my pants off, in the privacy of a partner, they always get a real surprise to see what’s going on…. down below.