Young Thug shocked the world when he revealed that he had gotten an ice cream cone tattooed on his face in tribute to Gucci Mane. "Shocked" might be a bit of a stretch, considering that the rapper has been on a tear of unpredictable behavior since the release of his Barter 6 album. First he tried to cop the name Tha Carter 6 from Lil Wayne (and in an "unrelated" incident, his road manager was just arrested for allegedly shooting at Weezy's tour bus). The he got the "tribute" tattoo. What next? Will he start wearing clocks on chains as a "tribute" to Flava Flav?
Anyway, all we have right now is that Young Thug got some fresh ink, and it's on his face. Here are six other prominent musicians that have used their heads as showcases for questionable art installations.
Phil Anselmo
Your correspondent is of the mind that getting a band logo tattooed anywhere on your body is a questionable call. After all...tastes change...and bands sell merchandise with the explicit purpose of you wearing it and promoting their act. You can even switch between bands from day-to-day. Such is not the case when you get the "hatchet man" tattooed on your arm. Another popular logo that pops up on plenty of rock fans is the "CFH," which is often unreadable because the ink melts together. The acronym stands for "Cowboys from Hell," a reference to Pantera's breakthrough single. Normally we give band members a hard time for wearing their own mercy onstage, so we're not sure what to make of frontman Phil Enselmo having "CFH" tattooed on the side of his frequently-shaved head. Granted, he does sing in Down now...but it's still not the best look. Of course, the same guy frequently smashes a microphone into his head onstage, so we're not sure a tattoo is the worst idea, relatively.
Kerry King
It's probably not a surprise that metal bands take face/head tattoos to a whole other level. While many rappers litter their faces with plenty of small logos and minor tattoos, metalheads such as Slayer guitarist Kerry King uses his entire dome as a showcase for the kind of demonic imagery you might expect from the head writer in a band such as Slayer. The back of his head is a rather well-done demonic face, which bleeds down his neck and the side of his head into tribal patterns similar to those on his arm. King's case is somewhat different from the rest on this list because his tattoos were of, uh, necessity. There was a point where Slayer was the best among thrash acts at, well, thrashing. It's hair windmills were without compare. Then age hit. Frontman Tom Araya had neck surgery, making head banging a potentially dangerous activity. King began to go bald so he simply shaved his head and covered it in ink.
Lil Wayne
Speaking of rappers who cover every inch of their face with small tattoos, and speaking of rappers with ties to Young Thug, Lil Wayne is simply out of control when it comes to tattoos. And not just on his face...if we had to guess one musical performer who was truly "addicted" to getting inked, it would be Weezy. Let's take a brief tour of his face: It started simply enough, with commonplace tears by his eyes and a cross above the bridge of his nose. Then things started getting weird...a fleur-de-lis representing his hometown of New Orleans near his right ear...a pulsing vein coming down from the top of his forehead...and the grand finale (at the moment): a piece of work on his chin that shows a monstrous eye that seems to peer out from beneath Wayne's skin. He learned from the best...Birdman.
The Transplants
Why stop at one member with a head-full of tattoos when you can form a supergroup of dudes with head ink? We're sure that's not what the band The Transplants had it mind when it assembled during 2002. It's weird when your mother might refer to Rancid/Operation Ivy frontman Tim Armstrong as the most friendly-looking member of a group, but that's what happens when Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and punk-rapper Rob Aston are part of your crew. Barker is one of the most tattooed men in music in general, and his previously-mohawked head is no exception. There's a somewhat amateurish man in a gas mask on the back of his head and a very professional looking Virgin Mary on top (and a small anchor near his right eye, what the heck). "Skinhead Rob" is the more comical version of the two, with a one-eyed skeleton on top of his head, a beach babe on the right side and then the phrase "get some" over his right eye. If "some" was meant to mean "ink"...no kidding.
Boy George
Boy George has made a career by way of wearing his trademark hat, but don't assume that there's always been hair under there. In fact, the Culture Club frontman has a head-shaking collection of tattoos on his own dome. There are some stereotypical Asian aesthetics, such as water lilies and Japanese waves, but the real eye-catcher is the huge Star of David that decorates the back of his head. Our first thought was that it was odd someone would tattoo the symbol upon themselves, considering how even some less-than-orthodox Jews consider tattoos a taboo. We the discovered that George isn't Jewish at all...he was born to Irish Catholic parents and bought into the Hare Krishna religion and then later Buddhism...but it doesn't seem as if he's ever made a move to become Jewish.
Brent Hinds
The Mastodon frontman at least gets a nod for creativity with his piece. It's tough to tell what the design is that wraps in a crescent shape from his forehead around the right side of his face down to his neck, but it's well done and not entirely damning to his visage. The only issue is that Hinds frequently grows his hair and beard out, which results in the image being at least half blocked, and potentially even further more depending on how he grows his facial hair.
