I met Mitchel in Oklahoma City this last weekend. He turned me on to an abandoned church that I explored with camera in hand.
He said that he used to just have PUNX on his right hand, but later changed it to LOVE with a safety pin. Which is even more punk rock if you ask me.
I met Benny at the Blue Note in Oklahoma City on Christmas Day. He said that he is a punk, but never bought into chaos and anarchy. RIOT stands for Righteous Invasion of Truth and he believes in order, truth and justice.
I ran into Miguel at Target tonight, as I contemplated purchasing a PS3 for myself for the holiday season. Miguel’s story was that he was “Done with the game” and the knuckles were his dedication to that idea.
I met Lance at an annual backyard, underground, bare knuckle, Texas Chili Cooking contest. He works at the Swan Dive bar, here in Austin. His story was that he was at a party one time where a girl was sterilizing tattoo needles and asked if anyone wanted a free tattoo. He thought about it for a half hour and got his knuckle tattoos done.
In case you were wondering, I took 2nd in the chili contest.
Dennis Thomas is a photographer and writer hailing of Austin, Texas. I ran into him at the Occupy Austin rally on October 6th. I’ve known Dennis forever but this is the first time I got a good shot of his knuckles. He is busy shooting shows and writing the Nikon Digital Field Guides.
I met Nikki while grabbing a bite at Home Slice Pizza here in Austin. She is a photo editor at Texas Monthly. Nikki didn’t want to get the standard GOOD and EVIL, so she got the equivalent sentiments for her. Her second set are all good luck and bad luck symbols. She said that the dots above her nails hurt the worst.
I met Dan today at the skatepark. We skated for a while and then I noticed his knuckle tattoos. When I asked him about them his story was basically, he was hanging out with his friends and one of them had a tattoo gun, so he has a variety of small home tattoos. He got drunk one day and woke up with HELL BENT. He guesses that maybe they were listening to Judas Priest.
Pauly here is a door guy at the Nite Hawk Cinema in Brooklyn. He has nothing but love for the world, but he thinks it is high time I got my knuckles done.
I met Will at the Shangri La in Austin, TX. When I asked him why he got “ELLO LOVE”, he replied “Because I was young and dumb.” He claims to have never picked up a girl using the knuckle tattoos, but I’m skeptical.
I met Angie at The Grackle, and her knuckle tattoos read BROKEN, but I didn’t see anything wrong with her. When I asked her about her knuckle tattoos, she told me that she was getting them lazered off. She said that she was drunk with a friend and just picked a word.