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Retro Totem Tattoo Commemorates Gaming Classics

An anonymous reader writes "This guy had always wanted a tattoo, but could never decide what to get. A looming 30th birthday fueled a furious design phase which has resulted in an excellent tribute to some of the great gaming classics while he was growing up. As the native people in the pacific northwest used totem poles to tell stories and keep family chronologies, this design was intended to tell a history of some of the important games that influenced him (and a lot of us, too) throughout his life. Images are Coral Cache-ed."

35 comments

  1. Joke by someguy456 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    ./ is joking right? The most important thing going on for nerds right now is some guy's blurry pics of a small tattoo? Come on!

    1. Re:Joke by SuperJew · · Score: 1

      but it's a REALLY COOL TATOO!

      er.

      Yeah.

      I did like the subtlety of the triforce in the background though.

      --
      /sig
    2. Re:Joke by LuckyPossum · · Score: 1

      The last three pics look good, but the first couple are really blurry.

    3. Re:Joke by jericho4.0 · · Score: 1
      When we all should be rushing to get the just released No Hot Cofee patch.

      Really cool tattoo, BTW.

      --
      "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
  2. No Sonic Tats? by ZephyrXero · · Score: 1

    Where the Sonic the Hedgehog love?

    --
    "A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
    1. Re:No Sonic Tats? by bersl2 · · Score: 1

      Outside of the time period (these all originated in the 70's and 80's IIRC)?

  3. Wow... by azrane2005 · · Score: 1

    Dude, that is wicked sweet. I like how it dates from Pong 1976, I think?), to arcade games in the early '80s, to 1986, with Mario, Megaman, and the Triforce from the Legend of Zelda series, all of which, were on the NES.

    1. Re:Wow... by karnal · · Score: 1

      That's funny...

      Take a closer look at the pong "image" tatooed into his leg... and you'll see.. 2 numbers.... :)

      --
      Karnal
    2. Re:Wow... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You forgot the horizontal speeders from metroid :)

  4. Veeery nice! by Txiasaeia · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Speaking as a tattooed geek myself, after reading the blurb, I thought that there was no way that this guy could pull it off, but it's definitely very cool. I would personally never tattoo images of video games on my body, but this is tasteful, fun, and looks aesthetically nice. I'm not sure that anybody would mistake it for a totem pole, but that's beside the point.

    (And you got it done in the ditch, too! I've only got a bit done on my inner wrist, but getting *pong* done there, with all that blackwork? Ouch! Good thing the artist didn't tell you that that area's one of the most painful places to tattoo on the body, eh? :)

    --
    Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
    1. Re:Veeery nice! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I got a Mortal Kombat dragon a few years back. Very nice shading and unless you've played the game you'd think it was just a cool dragon piece. Very nifty.

  5. Please stop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For the love of God, Zonk! Haven't you done enough damage for one day? Please, please, please. Just stop. Your stories are like putting a Q-Tip in one's ear and pushing and pushing until it comes out the other side.

    1. Re:Please stop! by Flunitrazepam · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      preach on.. this has been the worst day in games.slashdot history.

      My lord.

      --
      1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
    2. Re:Please stop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Modding comments about the ever decreasing quality of Zonk's posts as "Offtopic" is equivalent to kicking someone out of the Moby Dick book club for talking about Herman Melville.

      I realize, dear moderators, that you are doing this in the belief that you are helping slashdot. The reality is you are contributing to it's demise by allowing the editors to continue ignoring, and indeed, spitting in the face of, their readers.

    3. Re:Please stop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't stop him now, I have $20 that says he'll post another "Katamari Damacy is so innovative" story before 5pm.

    4. Re:Please stop! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      don't forget the stories about Rockstar and its haters.

  6. oh man i'd be pissed by Mahou · · Score: 2, Funny

    they messed up the fucking triforce! how hard is it to draw a pixelated triangle? ok pretty hard and he probably had his skin stretched a little but still, he had it traced so the lines should've matched up a lot better than they did.

    --
    if i'm not immortal, what's the point of living?
    ...te?
    1. Re:oh man i'd be pissed by The+Madd+Rapper · · Score: 0

      The design he supplied has an asymmetrical pixelation of the triangle, if that's what you were referring to. Otherwise, I didn't notice the areas where it's not perfectly perpendicular until now.

      --
      That's the shit that feds me up
    2. Re:oh man i'd be pissed by tetujin · · Score: 2, Informative

      actually, if you look at a screencap of the triforce from Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (SNES), the pixels are exactly like the tattoo. i'd say mad props for getting it right!

  7. What a dork :p by Stonewolf57 · · Score: 0

    He thought getting a tattoo on his arm hurt? Weakling. I have a tattoo of a wolfpaw on my chest, right next to my nipple, supposedly one of the most painful places to get a tattoo, and seriously it wasn't that bad. Granted it's not a very large tattoo (only about 2 half inches, by 2, I'm guessing), but I'd say this guy is really whining far to much over it (his wife was there to support him through it. God pussy; I would have talked her into getting one too). Cool tattoo, though.

    1. Re:What a dork :p by FidelCatsro · · Score: 1

      If you think a tattoo doesn't hurt, then there is something wrong. It's not wimpy to admit it hurts , its only wimpy to scream like a little girl and run out of the tattoo parlour (which i have seen , and it was rather hilarious)
      It probably hurt a lot mainly because of the amount of Black ink used ,IIRC the needle for black ink has to penetrate the skin far deeper .
        I have seen far bigger and far tougher guys with tears in the sides of their eyes after having Large Black ink tattoos .

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    2. Re:What a dork :p by Stonewolf57 · · Score: 0

      Shrug, mine is all black. It needs re-shading as it was a rush job, they were busy and I price haggled for it (done by Ink Smith's in Tacoma, WA). Personally, it didn't hurt that much though, it did get annoying after awhile, but I can't say it was really painful. I keep meaning to go back for more, but I never get around to it. Hell, my friend was with me when I got mine done, and he got a dragon wrapped around a sword on his forearm. It was multicolored, about 4 or 5 times the size of mine, took them 3 hours, and I didn't hear him complain, although I think he might have taken a break midway though it.

    3. Re:What a dork :p by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're too chicken shit to go back because it hurts. "I keep meaning to ..." blah blah. Man up, Nancy.

  8. How sad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just imagine in a few centuries when people dig our current society out of the ground only to find that we did the most pathetic, idiotic, stupidest, attention-whorish shit to our bodies all in the name of trying to be different or cool or hardcore and really just proving that you're a lame ass clown like everyone else who tries to be hip, cool, trendy or rebellious by getting a lame ass fucking body modification of their own.

  9. Camera by maddskillz · · Score: 1

    What's up with the horrible pictures? If you are planning to document something, use something better then your cellphone camera!

    1. Re:Camera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I was thinking the same. The last three pics: flash == glare, no flash == dark and needs white balanced, outside == needs back-light compensation.

  10. "Retro Totem Tattoo" by JFMulder · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's not "Retro Totem Tattoo", it's "Clato verrata nicto"!

    1. Re:"Retro Totem Tattoo" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Clato verrata nicto"

      Klaatu barada nikto, without the Venusian accent.

  11. Looming? by hey! · · Score: 1

    30th?

    Let me tell you, that particular molehill looks pretty small looking back from a decade and a half beyond. It's just the first indicator that you aren't going to be able to get around to everything you planned to do with your life before your inevitable appointment with the Grim Reaper. Pretty soon, the PDA of life will be popping up daily reminders, and there's no way to turn them off.

    Ah, well, if that's what it takes to get motivated to do what you really want to do.

    For the most part, it's not the case we get any smarter as we get older, we just exchange our youthful gullibility and enthusiasm for a mature addiction to comfort and a pig-headed predjudice for whatever we're accustomed to. So, I make it a rule not to indulge in the "If I only knew then what I know now," kind of thinking. On the whole premature maturity is a terrible waste of opportunity. The one thing I really do wish I knew back then was this: if there's something you really want to do, see to it right away. Whatever it is that's stopping you -- it's too hard, too embarassing, too painful -- it won't matter as much once you've done it as much as not doing it will when your lifetime supply of recklessness starts to run out.

    So, I salute this gentleman and his tatoo, and his inexpllicable need to put blurry pictures of it on the Internet for the whole world to gawk at. Personally, I have no idea why anyone would do any of these things, but I admire the backbone it takes to spit in the eye of people who'd tell you it's not appropriate behavior for an adult.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  12. Yes! by Beatbyte · · Score: 2, Funny

    You now have it in ink.... ...that you are a big dork! HA!!!

    damn I want one.

  13. Vipassana Exercise by hey! · · Score: 1

    I have devised, as part of my system of ethical ironicism, a special vipassana meditation specifically for people like you.

    (1) Stand facing away from a mirror.

    (2) Calm your mind, take a deep cleansing breath.

    (3) Focus on the most contemptible, stupid thing you can remember somebody doing.

    (4) Fan the feelings of contempt until they blossom into a sense of self-righteous superiority.

    (5) Assemble a look of disapproval on your face if there isn't one there yet. If you don't know how, try this: draw your brows down like you're slightly angry, raise your chin so you are looking down your nose, and wrinkle your nose slightly like you're smelling something a bit on the distasteful side.

    (6) Raise your index finger like you're instructing a willful and somewhat stupid child.

    (7) Keeping all these elemements in place, turn around and examine your reflection.

    Now for the meditation:

    I. Fix the image in your reflection in step 7 in your mind, and ask yourself whether this is how you really want the world to see you.

    II. Fix the feeling you generated in step 4 in your mind. Is it familiar? Good. Now ask yourself whether you really want to be part of the Gravitas Police, and go around pissing on other people's fun.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:Vipassana Exercise by pontifier · · Score: 1

      wow... I don't think I've ever made that face before... it's kinda funny. I should take a picture and bury it in the ground for people to dig up centurys from now.

      --
      -John Fenley
  14. Actually, messed up the left Item-2 by lysander · · Score: 1

    The NES uses tile flipping to switch sprites from right to left (or more rarely, top to bottom). The left Item-2 (the jet platform) should be a mirror image of the one on the right; the "2" on the left should look like a "5" because of the flip.

    </pedant>

    --
    GET YOUR WEAPONS READY! --DR.LIGHT
  15. Best Zelda Tat Ever! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.livejournal.com/community/gamingtattoos /2215.html

    I think it looks great as-is, colouring it would be bad.