Hello, my names Michael. I’m 19 and have had my knuckles tatt’d for about a year now, on my right hand I have an anchor, the illuminati sign, a spade, and a dollar sign. On the left its a diamond, a key hole, a lightning bolt, and lastly an old school bomb! They didn’t have a mass amount of meaning but I thought they looked sweet so I just went with them lol

Got this done in honor of Carl Sagan. Inspired from his quote from “Cosmos”:

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson also said it very well:

Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.”

Be humble for you are made of earth, be noble for you are made from stars

Cherry D’vine is always living on the borderline, her two alter egos are constantly in conflict.

I’m Roberto Lagarto from Brazil and my story is: “I just fucking love bad brains. So I tattooed this song to remember that when problems appears in my life I just have to keep movin’ and sailin’ on!”

But please, credit the tattoo as www.livetowin.com.br.  The tattooer that made is a friend of mine, Izaac Alves (Durex)

My names Rob I’m from Massachusetts I have the words “Stay Away” on my knuckles. I chose these words cuz I’m not a people person and being in a band I have to deal with a lot if people so I got stay away just to let everyone know your just better off staying away from me we may not be enemies but we can’t be friends

Leah sends us these knuckles and their story:

I grew up playing video games but when the Sony playstation came out it changed me forever. It was the first console I owned that used CD instead of cartridge. The graphics blew me away, I’ve been a die hard playstation fan since.

Hello. My name is Caidyn. I’m a 19 year old recovering alcoholic from Washington. I got these knuckle tattoo’s in January of this year and I just recently got them touched up because they had faded quite a lot.

I’ve wanted knuckle tattoos since I was around 14 and had a lot of ideas of what I wanted to get, but wanted to make sure that I did not get something that someone else already had. (Which is really hard and close to impossible to do when it comes to tattoos)

I decided to get “Born Poet” for the fact that when I was 15, I tried writing poetry just to mess around and try something new and found that I had a natural talent for it and everyone I showed my work to, loved it and gave me uplifting comments for my writing ability.

These knuckle tattoos inspire me to remain in my writing and remind me how much I need to keep writing in my life. Especially in recovery because I struggle with not opening up with people no matter how close I am to them. So writing gives me an escape I need and keeps me from remaining in my addiction.

I LOVE MY KNUCKLES!

Hey I’m Marc from Brisbane, Australia

Love your site and have been following it for a while now and thought it was about time I submitted my knux.

Heartless at the top because I really just don’t care for love or relationships. Free will in the middle to remind myself it’s my life and my choices, and daydream on the bottom as I spend way too much time in my own head.

Not sure if you’re interested but I’ve also attached a picture of the inside of my fingers.

Quelle fucking surprise is a line from an Enter Shikari song, it means what a fucking surprise, because I’m used to the shit life throws at me by now and nothing surprises me. Straight outta compton on the other side just as a bit of a joke.

I met Ari M. at the door of a bar I work at in downtown Austin. She sends us these knuckles and her story:

Lovely, with an anchor to keep my feet on the ground and a star to keep my head in the clouds. Plus yin on one thumb and yang on the other.

Well where to kick off really, the relevance of HOLD FAST as a tattoo originally came about to prove a sailors worth on board, a rite of passage as such, you had to earn it and was therefore a privilege to have, it was originally tattooed on the knuckles to prove you were an able seaman, insignia on the hands showed what experience you had to captains commissioning crew. As a tattoo it allows me to remember what I’ve achieved on a professional level and the respect I earned amongst my ship mates.

Now, I have only had the tattoos a year but it has been a phrase I have used in my personal life for lots of years due to personal struggles caused both by myself and third parties and a long battle with a drug and alcohol addiction, HOLD FAST because sometimes you just have to lock it down, hold on and wait for the fucking storm to clear.

My torso is extensively tattooed but was never allowed anything visible due to my career, after many years of wanting the tattoo and many hours pondering it I felt established enough within myself, family and friends to go for it without judgement (not that I really give a fuck what anyone thinks anyway) but it definitely made the decision easier.

Also, I just wanted to give a msg to anyone thinking about getting their fingers done:

Please please make sure this is something you want done, give it many many years of thought and don’t allow it to be a spur of the moment decision, although there is a massive tolerance to ink today your knuckles are a huge statement and people will judge, make sure it has a significant meaning to you because if somebody has the bollocks to ask you what they mean you should give them the respect of a dignified answer, not just “because it looked cool man” because they will think you and the rest of us are dicks…

Cheers,

Harvey Rodgers,

Southampton, England