The Blade series of films features body art that has become nigh on legendary in its popularity. In the films, Wesley Snipes is Blade, the vampire killer, and carries the nickname Daywalker. His character is part vampire himself and is at once feared and revered by the vampires he hunts down. Blade has a martial arts style and weapons arsenal that is the envy of many a young man, and some who are not so young… but his real cachet is the fact that he carries probably the best tribal tattoos ever shown in a film. The first film in the series lays out the scene, with Blade’s underground war against the vampire world. It turns out his mother was bitten just before he was born and died in childbirth. This angst of his coming into existence provides the underlying tension throughout the films. The tattoo designs Blade wears are original to the movie and are derived from Polynesian influences. The blackwork covers most of his upper chest, arms and shoulders as well as around the back of the head and extending down the neck. They are best viewed in the slower scenes, usually with a female character (ahem…) but it is in the fight scenes that the excitement and animalistic sexuality set the tattoos off best, in my opinion. The vampires also wear tattoos, however. These are identifiers, much like gang markings, where each clan or vampire family has its own set of designs, to show the identity of the individual. These markings extend to their pets, humans who serve a particular vampire clan. These are much like servants who will perform the daylight tasks  impossible for a vampire to carry out. In some cases, these humans are kept like animals in pens, providing a ready source of nourishment to the vampires. Once caught, many of these humans aspire to being bitten and becoming vampires themselves. They are then sent out into the world to best serve the clan. In one of the films, Blade finds a tattoo marking on a police officer and therefore knows that the vampires have a presence in the human world.

Slash, guitarist for Guns ‘N Roses and several other bands, is the ultimate bad boy rocker, with his long curly hair, sunglasses, cigarettes, and tattoos.  Slash’s many tattoos have even inspired fans to get the same images inked onto their own bodies, making a little piece of Slash a permanent mark in their lives, carrying him and his art wherever they go. Variety is the Spice of Life Even When it Comes to Tattoos Slash has a variety of different tattoos all over his body, and each tattoo that can be found on him represents something unique and meaningful to him.  He apparently even sketched his own tattoos, thanks to his innate talent for drawing. On Slash’s right bicep, he has a tattoo of a caricature of himself in a red shirt holding a rose in his teeth.  His signature thick, long black hair covers the eyes, and the word “Slash” is tattooed underneath the image. In tribute to his current band, Velvet Revolver, Slash has a tattoo inked onto the underside of his right forearm.  The image is a silhouette of a woman that is also the cover of the band’s album titled “Contraband.”  The woman is drawn with a gun holster on her leg.  It’s an image involving a little bit of sex appeal combined with power, kind of like Slash himself. On the back of Slash’s left shoulder is yet another tattoo.  This one is often referred to as the “snakepit tattoo” because it is the logo of yet another one of his musical projects, a band called Slash’s Snakepit. Slash pays tribute to the band that made him famous and who he is today, Guns ‘N Roses, on his left bicep.  There, imagery associated with the band, namely a skull wearing a top hat surrounded by roses, can be found.  The image also includes the letters “D.T.U.D.”, which represent “drink till you drop.”  And beneath those letters are the words “Forever Until.” He also had his son’s name, London, tattooed on his lower back, and his other son’s name, Cash, was inked onto his upper abdomen.  Further paying tribute to his family, his wife’s name, Perla, is permanently found on his left forearm, adorned with a rose. And Slash loves his cigarettes, which are displayed on a couple of his tattoos, including one of a pair of lips with a cigarette in them on his right shoulder, and a top hat-wearing cat smoking a cigarette on the lower right side of his abdomen. Meanings Behind the Ink As you can tell, Slash’s tattoos are not just meaningless empty images strewn all over his body.  Rather, each is a representation of a unique time in his life, his various musical projects, and the most important people to him.  Clearly, he has taken the time to really think about what he wanted permanently inked onto his body, and most of his tattoos are found in places, like his arms and shoulders, that are exposed so that fans can see the artwork and even mimic some of them for their own tattoos.

The ladies of the Kardashian family have long been in the limelight.  Whether we’re talking about how much junk Kim’s got in the trunk or Khloe’s jail time, they seem to always be at the forefront of celebrity gossip.  We decided that one of the male members of the family deserved to get a little attention, since Rob hasn’t had any attention since the days of his perfect score on Dancing with the Stars.   So we began undertaking the task of revealing Rob Kardashian’s tattoos. The random assortment of ink that Rob has in various places on his body ended up being a little more than we had bargained for.  Unlike other celebs, each one of his tattoos actually means something!  Kim describes her brother as a “tat-aholic,” and really, there is no other word to better describe the tatted up masterpiece that is Rob Kardashian. Ode to a Departed Daddy Rob has a few tattoos that were meant to honor the memory of his departed father, Robert Kardashian, Sr.  The most prominent is an artful drawing of his father’s face on his left forearm.  The tat takes up the majority of his arm, and Kim once blogged that, “…it looks exactly like my dad!” As an added tribute to his father, Rob has scripted ink around his neck as well.  At first glance, it’s difficult to make out what it says.  The phrase reads, “A Wise Son Brings Joy to His Father.”  Rob was just 16 when his father died of cancer, and clearly his memory and the desire to still make him proud are major factors in Rob’s life. Regret Much? For two years, Rob dated former 3LW lead singer and Cheetah Girl, Adrienne Bailon.  Kim actually takes the credit for introducing the two.  At some point during the relationship, Rob had her name tattooed in beautiful script (not to mention very large script) on his left ribcage.  We can’t help but wonder a couple of things: First, what is Rob planning to do about the tattoo now that he and Bailon are over?  And second, does Kim still want to take the credit? Looking Back Perhaps the most interesting of Rob’s tattoos (although daddy’s face is definitely interesting) is the simple black line bird illustration on the right side of his ribcage (yes, just take a right at Adrienne Bailon and you’ll run right into it).  The tattoo is a bird that is shown with its body facing forward, but its head is looking back.  Evidently it’s an African symbol that means to portray that no matter where you go in life, you should never forget to look back to where you came from.  This just might be another symbol for his dad; reminding Rob to look back as he moves forward. Kim explained the meaning behind this tattoo in her blog, and while we appreciate the info, we wonder how her brother feels about her dishing about all of his ink; and other aspects of his life.