Tattoos

Tattoo's gallery

Details: Parent Category: HIM; Created on Wednesday, 26 August 2009 12:59; Last Updated on Friday, 31 May 2013 12:03; Published on Wednesday, 26 August 2009 12:59; Written by Olly Olly Oxen Free; Hits: 40007

Ville Valo

Heartagram Tattoo

The most Ville Valo's recurring tattoo is the heartagram, a symbol invented and designed by Ville himself. He's got three: on his nape, on his lower abdomen and another one on his chest just on his left nipple. This one was added as a cover up of the tattoo representing the initial of his ex girlfriend's name, Susanna, and it's been tattooed by HIM's official tattoer, Kat Von D.

During the 2009/2010, Ville showed a lots of new tattoos to his fans. The most recent is the new heartagram he showed for the first time in the Heartkiller video - first single of their seventh studio album 'Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice' - which is a little different from the usual heartagram.

This image is takene from the Heartkiller video, the scene where you can see the new heartagram tattoo:

Sleeve Tattoo

Actually, the most representative Ville's tattoo is the tribal sleeve on his left arm, which starts on his collar-bone and end on his wrist. This tattoo has been made by a tattoer, named Hyke, who's today one of his friends. They met in a club where they were both drinking and while talking, Hyke told Ville that he was a both a tattoo artist and a guitar player (he played with him for a little while). Ville asked him
to do the heart on his right wrist just to test how the feeling of being tattooed was like. Then, they met the week after, once again drunken, and they sorted the idea of this sleeve out. Initially, they planned to do both his arms and back but they couldn't because of the little time they had since in that period Ville and HIM were touring in Europe for the first time. The making of this tattoo was... bizare, let's say so, since they were both really young, they liked drinking a lot and they worked in Hyke's studio, drinking and listening to Motorhead all the time. A few hours of tattooing and then again straight to the pub. On top of that, the sleeve needed to be tattooed without a stencil since it wasn't possible to design one.

Thanks to Avelina de Moray for the photo.

Click on the photo for bigger size.

Words, Heart and Hermit

The heart on Ville's right wrist is the first thing he got tattoed - when he was about 19 - both to test how tattooing was and because he wanted an heart, symbol of love. Throughout the ages, he added two writings: When I Love I Love and Dilligaf.

DILLIGAF stands for Do I Look Like I Give a Fuck?. Other than Ville, also Bam Margera and Kat Von D got this and, people say, Jonna Nygren, Ville's ex girlfriend.

To her was dedicated the J Ville got tattoed on his ring-finger as an engagement ring (she had instead a V). Today, however, he doesn't have it anymore. He started wearing again the rings of the DSABHL period to cover firstly the J and then scar.

Another tattoo which seemed to be dedicated to Jonna is the written may on his right chest. As he was used to tell, this represented Jonna's sex. Nobody can surely affirm is this is true, but it seems to be one of its meanings. The other one, instead, less bizare, says that it's inspired by Larry, Spongebob's snail, whose translation in Finnish is Meow but pronounced it's May.

Ville's got another written: NIDIOT. He got this tattoed always by Kat Von D together with his friend Bam Margera. There isn't much to say about it, aside from that he was probably drunken, as it frequently happened, and while they were partying they got it since Kat was there too. They took some photos, both during Bam's tattoo while he was laying down Ville's legs, and the after. And this is the photo that someone from the crew, maybe, published on his web site and then, briefly, the Finnish tabloids managed to have it. Ville's tattoo, as Bam's, has been made on his ass.

About it, Ville said:

CITAZIONE

“We got tattoos on our a*s cheeks saying ‘Nidiot’. It’s an old inside joke, and the guy put the pictures on his internet site and some of the tabloids in Finland got them, so they had a spread of my a*s in some tabloid. I was laughing my a*s off. Literally. But you know, everybody’s got an a*s.”

Another name related tattoo was the initial of his first girlfriend, Susanna. As a birthday gift, Ville got tattooed on his chest, where there's now the heartagram, her S. After splitting up, Ville was used to say that it standed for sex or Satan, but in geneal for every word starting with that letter. This tattoo was covered up by Kat Kat Von D.

Back in 2009 more or less, Ville added some symbols above the DILLIGAF written, on his right wrist, just above the heart. As Ville himself said, when interviewed on occasion of the Heartagram Day 2009, this tattoo represents a passage from Dante's Divine Comedy.

The symbols:

Here it is an almost sure interpratation:

CITAZIONE

Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

This is taken fro the interview on occasion of the Heartagram Day 2009:

CITAZIONE

It’s um it says canto um which means chapter. It doesn’t mean anything nasty. Um it’s um hold on. It’s from uh Dante’s Inferno.From kinda the beginning I guess. You know I don’t know the different translations but um you know…I don’t have the Inferno with me now so I can’t read the exact line for ya but uh, but uh it’s just a line that keeps me going so it’s one of those things

At the beginning of 2009, Ville showed a new tattoo on occasion of the lecture - The creative dialogue and life - at Helsinki university on January 14th, 2009 together with philosopher Pekka Himanen.

Also made by Kat Von D, the tattoo was made while Ville was in LA. Its meaning is told a month after on occasion of the Heartagram Day.

Ville said:

CITAZIONE

"Uh I’ve got loads of new tattoos anyway but um you know it’s just um it’s something Kat improvised when I was in LA. It’s just a, it’s a combination of an hourglass with wings and uh and uh, it says hermit in French" ... "since I’ve turned into a hermit. It’s just uh, It’s just like a little tiny combination of a lot, not necessarily inside jokes but um stuff only close friends know." ... "So uh it’s like a little puzzle type of thing, more or less."

CDs symbols: Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights and Venus Doom

As well as poets and writtens, Ville's got three symbols representd on two HIM's CDs: Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights and Venus Doom. From Venus Doom, he got tattoed a sort of ideogram, designed by himself, that we can find on the cover of the Special Edition (2 CDs). From DSABHL, instead, Ville got tattoed the Cosmic Pope and the Uja. For further infos about these symbols, visit our article about HIM's simbology.

Poets and Writers: Bukowski, Baudelaire, Mukka and Poe

Ville's also a fan of poet portraits: he's got four. Almost all done by Kat Von D. On his forearm there're the portraits od Charles Bukowski, Charles Baudelaire, Timo K. Mukka and, on his back, there're Edgar Allan Poe's eyes. These can be also seen on the US version of the Killing Loneliness video: Villle is on a chair, with a mobile phone, while he's getting tattooed by Kat Von D, main characterof the video.

Thanks to Avelina de Moray for the photo.

Click on the photo for bigger size.

Cinema: Klaus Kinski and Maja Deren

Images taken from HIM's Official Calendar 2010

In 2009, Ville added two more portraits to his collection always made by Kat Von D. This time the inspiration comes from cinema, since we're talking about Klaus Kinski and Maja Deren.

Klaus Kinski, stage name for Nikolaus Karl Günther Nakszyński (Sopot, October 18th, 1926 – Lagunitas-Forest Knolls, November 23rd, 1991) was a German actor and director, both for theatre and cinema.
Further infos: wikipedia.org

Ville about Klaus Kinski, taken from Euro Rock Radio's interview:

CITAZIONE

"I’ve got a few, I’ve got one of Klaus Kinksi, a German actor."

CITAZIONE

"It’s just a cool one. It’s from a picture he’s an adult sucking his own thumb, lying on a naked lady."

CITAZIONE

"So that’s uh, that’s such a psychedelic image and uh it looks exactly like that but uh Kat did that one too and it’s on my lower stomach and it’s looks really good. It’s guaranteed after that tattoo, I’m never going to get laid."

This is the image he got tattooed:

Maya Deren (Kiev, April 29th, 1917 – New York, October 13th, 1961) was an American director whose origins were Ukrainian.
Further infos: wikipedia.org

The first public appearance of this Deren's inspired tattoo was on June 15th, 2009 on occasion of the Metal Hammer Awards. This below is the photo he used:

This is a Ville tattoo taken from Avelina de Moray's gallery. We thanks her for her these photos to add to our gallery :) Click on the photo for bigger size.

Migé Amour

These are some close-ups of Migé's tattoo on both his arms. We don't have any infos about them though.

This, instead, is on of his most recentt tattoos. It was made in Helsinki by Sailor Andy, co-owner of the Legacy Tatoo studio.
We interviewed Sailor Andy and this is whathe told us about the tattoo (he even didn't know who Migé was at the beginning):

"Well, we do drop-in tattoos on Fridays, i.e. you don´t have to make an appointment. This guy, I don´t even know his name, from HIM walks in and wants a tattoo. I happened to be at the counter, so I just said:"Sure, whatta you want?" And he showed me a pencil drawing that some of his friend had done."

More? Click here to read the interview!

As seen on the latest promo photos, Migé's got a new tattoo on his left ring-finger. As you can see from the photos, he got tattooed a lttle flowe with the written "VED", probably dedicated to his wife, beautiful Vedrana.

Lily Lazer

These are Linde's tattoos and even in this case we don't know much about them, a part from the portrait of his daughter, Olivia, tattoed by Kat Von D.

Below a photo taken from Kat Von D's gallery: