so how many tattoos do you think you have now uh I see it as one tattoo so I I wouldn't be able to count yeah people always say I look like a melted [Music] crayon I grew up in a household my parents they worked in art and I was surrounded by colorful paintings my mom painted our bedroom like bright colors and I was surrounded by creative bright colored things and when I first started getting tattoos I was just like I like color my first one was uh this little pow print Christina Perry it was in
her brother's tattoo shop and I had no idea we actually ended up making music together and touring together in the future but it was in her brother's tattoo shop in 2010 I just turned 18 and I I was legal to get a tattoo so I walked into this shop I've drawn this por print on me for about 3 or four years every day with permanent marker and I was like that's going to be my one tattoo and I'll get no more obviously that didn't last actually I got these with Christina Perry I was just about
to play Madison Square Garden for three times I was told by my dad like if you can make it in New York you can make it anywhere in the world and it's quite a significant thing for me to come here and play three nights my grandfather was a boxer and worked in boxing as well and Madison Square Garden is sort of synonymous with boxing so that's why I got three boxing gloves my grandfather had also just passed away so it's kind of part and parcel of that this was 2012 October I featured on Taylor's album
Red I got it to signify that it was actually before I think I I hadn't been asked to be on the red tour at that point maybe this clinched it and then I went on the Red Tour and that was a year of my life living in America so it's quite a like significant tattoo of like that time how what did she think of about the tattoo I kind of remember actually I imagine at the time being like why why are you doing that my my favorite tattoo my daughter drew a little bunny rabbit and
I got that tattooed so that's probably my favorite one at the moment just because it's always covered up no one else sees it but it's something that I look at every day I've got my kids footprints on my back when they were born we got their Footprints and I put them in little squares after going to Antarctica which is possibly the most amazing place on the planet like it's really blw my mind seeing the orcus for the first time time when they come out of the water it's like really breathtaking also like when you're going
into Antarctica you see the first penguin and you're like oh my God and then by the end of it you you're just like penguins they're just everywhere it's just like oh it's another penguin but that is what my daughter is named after I mean they're all kind of meaningful but in terms of like most meaningful I'd say like this little number one finger for my friend Michael who passed away and then this little sptv for my friend Jamal that passed away and I wanted to have have them on my guitar playing hand just so they're
always like there cuz they've both been involved in my career in quite big ways I met Damen rice when I was like super young I'd gone to like an under 18 show with my cousin in uh Dublin I met him afterwards in the bar he was just there having a point and I went up and spoke to him and it was before I'd started writing songs or really taking that seriously and it was that was like the turning point of my life really have you seen the album cover for o anyway it's like two little
stick drawings and then it says Damen rice over the two little stick drawings and he took my album and signed it and then drew a little stick drawing of me with a plane above me cuz I'd flown over with my dad to irand that's essentially stick drawing me with the plane kind of where my career started essentially something I wanted to get for a while was the lyrics everything that happens is from now on from reacks I'd spoken to Gary lightbody from Snow Patrol about it and we were both like that's our favorite lyric we
should get that tattooed and I was like if I ever meet him I'll get to write it in his handwriting he was playing in suffk which is where I live and I managed to get to meet him and so I got it in handwriting I got a tattooed and Gary decided that he didn't want to get it done but Gary doesn't have any tattoos either I think I'm a bit more free with skin I also heard you have a matching tattoo with per Styles yeah I think he's tattooed over his it wasn't so much matching
I got the little Pingu penguin and he got Pingu written but I think he's covered it with a an anchor which obviously looks a bit [Music] cooler I was doing the video for goway girl with s shiron and she tattoos me in the video and I said to her it be funny if we misspell it goway Grill I think I said in an interview that she'd spelled it wrong and then that went round that she' spelled it wrong but we had we had planned it sersa did actually tattoo me I don't think she's given a
tattoo since I think this is the soul CER tattoo I'm a big fan of the TV show The Fresh prin of Bel Air and I was making this sleeve and getting tattoos and significant places that I was traveling so I got you know the hind ketchup in Pittsburgh and the koala in Australia I was like what do I get for Philly and I got Prince I was on tour with brickton they're Four Lads and we were on tour and in Great Britain there's like a phrase of when you're going out drinking with the lads your
Lads on tour and I was like oh we're Lads on tour we should get Lads on tour tattooed yeah it's about as basic as it can be but yeah I was playing Wembley Stadium wembly stadium is the biggest stadium that we have in the UK I didn't know I would be playing a stadium ever I didn't even think I'd be playing Arenas I thought I was a a theater artist and I sold out three Wembley in 2015 For the First Time The Wembley is the home of English football the crest of English football is Three
Lions so I wanted to get something connected with that I still think it's the biggest achievement of my life playing Wembley Stadium so I got plus multiply divide and subtract tattooed around my wrist I had the plan of the mathematics from like 2010 in my head that was the plan of the albums that I was going to do plus multiply divide and subtract equals came in in there a bit later but the next symbols have been on my arm for 13 years as well and I start that series next year I guess that's kind of
Prison Break of me isn't it just Clues most painful tattoo by far was s familiar 8 hours of just like you know the they do the tattoo needle with like 20 needles and it's just scraping in it was Grim like Grim I think tatos hurt more the more you get like your first one I remember getting this and being like oh that wasn't that bad and I feel the older I'm getting maybe it's just cuz I'm getting older but someone said it's the more you get tattoos your body is saying please stop doing this and
the more you get it the more it's saying please please just stop doing this
