Dick Cheney as the devil tattoo (with the Microsoft “Zune” symbol showing through his head. This tattoo belongs to this guy).
I’ve really got a pretty sweet treasure trove of eye candy for you today here on DM. In my downtime, I have to admit one of my guilty pleasures is perusing the Internet for images of tattoo art. As much as I love how getting inked has been elevated to a high art form over the past few decades or so, I’m also a sucker for the folks that end up with terrible renditions of Looney Tunes characters or message tattoos with forever typos like “no regerts.”
Former Prime Minister of the UK, Margaret Thatcher as an ice cream cone tattoo
Some of my favorite tattoo whoopsies are of the ever popular Chinese fonts that are picked at random from a tattoo flash book by an unwitting client. I’ve had many a good Simpsons-flavored “HA-HA’s” seeing someone who was under the impression that the cute symbol on their arm said “friendship.” However, when translated properly actually advertises that you are “bad looking, ugly or unclean.” Ah, linguistics. Live it, love it, and for fuck’s sake learn it before you get a tattoo involving words.
Saddam Hussein portrait tattoo. Ironically, during his reign, Hussein was known to imprison tattooed Iraqis as he believed tattoos were an “imitation” of western culture
In many cases, I was not surprised when I Googled a particular despots name along with the word “tattoo” and found not one, but many different varieties of ink-jobs that ran the gamut from A+ for execution to F for why???. Of course, it makes perfect sense that a former Soviet Army soldier might be sporting a Stalin tattoo on his back. Gulag prisoners from the past would also get the portraits of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin tattooed on their chests in the hope it would protect them from firing squads.
But why would anyone ever put a tattoo of Dick Cheney on their body? Is it an accurate depiction of Mr. Cheney? Sure. But it’s also a strong chick repellant (and people in general repellant for that matter). Despots, dopes and Dicks may come and go, but tattoos are (almost always) forever.
Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Cuba, Fidel Castro
Former Supreme Leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini
Heinrich Himmler, commander of the SS who was later placed in charge of the Gestapo (Secret State Police) by Hitler. He also led the task force in charge of creating the “death camps” that were used during the Holocaust
George W. Bush
Joseph Stalin CCCP (Central Committee of the Communist Party) hand tattoo. Soldiers in the Soviet Army under Stalin’s rule would often tattoo images of their beloved Georgian-born leader on themselves
“I can see Russia from this leg!” Sarah Palin tattoo
The President of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
Former Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi
Richard Milhous Nixon
Osama bin Laden
Marie Antoinette
Former Republican congressman and thrice-failed presidential hopeful, Ron Paul
Muammar Gaddafi. While he was in power, Libyan soldiers were known to tattoo images of Gaddafi on themselves
A young version of the former Chairman of the Communist Party of China, Mao Tse-tung
Dollar signs and diapers. 2016 GOP Presidential candidate, Donald Trump tattoo
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
People who have tattoos of Steve Buscemi. Because Steve Buscemi