Knuckle Tattoos

These knuckles come to us from the US Military on the hands of Jesse M. Here is what he says about them:

Vita (life) Mors (death) in latin. All that really is important in this world is life and death what you do in between is up to you. Im a u.s. marines so life and death are a big part of my job.

Straight out of San Francisco, CA we have Gary Vargas. He is a body piercer with Mom’s Body Shop in SF. He presents us with a set of knuckles dealing with coming to grips with who you are:

My kunckles were done by Eric Jones at Mom’s Body Shop in SF where i work as a body piercer. i’ve been trying to get tattooes that not only have a visual meaning, but a funny one as well. with my knuckles, i did some humor on my height. i’m 6 foot 8 and for most of my my life i hated my height. not untill i got into my late 20’s did i start to feel more comfortable about it.

These come from Kevin, 22 in Charlotte NC. Here’s his story and it is a rough one:

The reason I got what I did. I was with a girl for six months I was going to get hope on my knuckles because my life was actually going good for once. I just didnt get it because I had no idea of what to get on my other hand. Soon there after I found out that she was cheating on me, like every other girl before. So after I left her I just decided to get hopeless. I would have gotten it four months ago I just put other tattoos first.

Hey true believers!

I posted the 100th set of knuckles last week. I couldn’t be more excited! I’ve put together a little something to celebrate:

Get your own knuckles at the knuckle tattoo gun.

It is a virtual knuckle tattoo gun, just type in what you want on your knuckles and have them delivered piping hot and ready to post.Thanks to everyone who has helped me reach this goal, but especially all the great people who have sent in their knuckles for the site. When I started the project I was completely fascinated by the idea of knuckle tattoos. The more I’ve talked to the people behind them, the more I’ve come to realize that the interesting part is the people behind the knuckles. I’ve got a ton more stories in the wings, and I will be posting as I have time.

These are the hands of my friend and former band member Dwayne. I’ve always wondered about the story behind his knuckle tattoos. Since he was a friend of mine, I asked him if he would mind sharing his story and knuckles as my 100th set of knuckle tattoos on the site. Like every part of this project I got back a lot more than I bargained for.

His story after the jump:

These fists belong to Craig a local barman the singer for Warwulf. He says that he and one of his previous bands were on tour when they all decided to get knuckle tattoos. The were in Philadelphia at the time and went to Philadelphia Eddie’s to get tattooed. One of the band members was refused because he didn’t have enough other tattoos, so they all decided not to at the time (also being poor and on the road didn’t help). They promised that they would get their knuckles done later, but Craig is the only one that followed through.