Feature: Skin Deep With The Exciting World Of Nintendo Tattoos

They look great but do you want that on you forever?

I don't have a tattoo and I never would get one. It's a form of self-mutilation in some cases.

Imagine what that'll look like when they're 60 X-D

Oh dear!

I have loads of tattoos. Some of them are Nintendo.

I want to get Reggie's face tattooed over my face.

...See this is what talks me out of getting a tattoo. I've been designing a back tattoo for like a decade but then I see stuff like this and I go "ugh. Nevermind, why would I do this to myself? This is forever." Then I'll go a few months and see my sketch and start making tweaks. Sigh. I should just stick with custom eyes.

@JHDK As I said, self-mutilation.

oh - dear - dear - me.......you can't see it, but i'm pinching the bridge of my nose and fighting off a brain haemorrhage due to the over-stupificating effects of other people's life choices.

The art is really nice. He's certainly good at what he's doing. I personally like to see art somewhere else than on my skin, though.

A lot of judgmental people here

@Kalmaro I find the surfing Tepig to be kind of silly bit I have Zelda tattoos on both arms (right arm will be a full sleeve by the end) that I feel zero shame for. I've been loving Zelda for 20 years now, see no reason I will stop doing so.

Surprise, surprise, judgemental people who don't like tattoos commenting on other people's choices and against tattoos.

Right... This comment section is about to get real toxic.

Everyone, we're all united as Nintendo fans, let's not start fighting over people's life choices.

@Indielink Some Zelda stuff looks legit, can't lie.

By the way I have Git gud on my right wrist with a burned out bonfire, and Get Rekt on the other wrist awaiting my next tattoo that will be a lit bonfire. After I am done with the Dark Souls theme, one of the things I plan doing is the triforce on my right hand. No regrets.

@cadaver138 damn straight, my friend, I like that. I'm with you.

I was thinking of getting a LABO tattoo but just a temporary one so just like Labo, it won't last for long.

My first tattoo years ago was the Hylian royal crest on my left arm. Fairly standard, and a very common one among nerds, but I have had zero regrets. There's nothing that could happen to the Zelda franchise to erase the 25+ years I've spent enamored with these games.

Next on my list of Nintendo themed ink is a Boo(hiding it's face) on my leg in memory of my cat, also named Boo, who passed away recently.

@OorWullie Tight!

@AlexOlney back of the net!

Just experienced a strange website glitch...I appear to have ended up in a comments section from 1951! :/

@SLIGEACH_EIRE According to some people, it's a form of art.
I guess like any painting you can get rid of the canvas by chopping a limb off.

If I got a Nintendo tattoo it would be Pokémon Green Wigglytuff.

I have been thinking for years on getting a Yoshi tattoo. But several factors have prevented me from getting one as of yet; I may never get one.

@Rhaoulos If you fear regret you just shouldn't do it. Anyone will tell you that. You should only do that if your resolve is strong enough so that it doesn't change even if you don't care for the thing you tattooed anymore. I see my dark souls themed tattoos as if one day I don't like souls anymore, I will have this reminder of how I felt and thought at a time. A person with a weak resolve shouldn't be making big decisions, tattoos are not the only ones.

I'm not going to say getting a tattoo is good nor bad but I remember a YouTube Vlogger asking a tattoo artist to paint whatever he wants and he chose a stock image of a tattoo which is funny

If I ever hear that someone is playing Snipperclips, I instantly respect them.

LMAO....people worried about what they look like when they're 60. Your wrinkly skin is going to look like trash with or without tattoos! No one wants to see your old body anyway!

As for the "self-mutilation" stuff, that's only if you get tattoos that look like trash, and even then you can always get them covered up. These ones here pretty cool, quality-wise, although just like any other tattoo, I would question some of the content decisions. Like, I didn't know anyone liked Popplio THAT much!

Got a Mario Tattoo with a bottle of fireball and a fireball coming out of the bottle with stars around it. I love it and if I had the money I would probably add a Yoshi from Yoshi's Island with the him hit by the fuzzies also would like to get the Triforce on my arm somewhere. Not Nintendo but I also have a Ying yang in a Celtic design. I love both my tattoos and yeah the judgemental people can go somewhere else you're comments aren't necessary here

"I did use to work for the Nintendo hotline in the UK as well they were good times and worked with some really good guys."

"I prefer to do original designs, where I tattoo a lot of existing characters going with something original is extremely difficult, but I do try and use images I haven’t used before or to add some sort of background to make it more original."

Did NL run out of full stops / periods for this interview?

@subpopz Chav!

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Can't believe you haven't got Wii U tattooed on one of your appendages!

I think the question, "is it socially acceptable to have a video game tattoo?" is an extension of, "is it socially acceptable to be a gamer?"

Personally, I get SUPER embarrassed when people call me a "gamer" and feel like there's still a lot of stigma attached to it. That's the number one reason I haven't gotten a game-related tattoo yet.

The pictures themselves are nice, but I hate tatoo's! Be proud of your body given by nature, and don't dilute it!

Wow I'm kind of surprised in 2018 that this many people are still offended by tattoos. If you don't want a tattoo or like tattoos that's totally cool, but to judge people for doing something that they obviously enjoy and is not harming anyone else is pretty damn weak in my opinion. And yes I have 3 tattoos and 2 of them Zelda related. I named my daughter Saria after the character in Ocarina of Time so I have her name in the Zelda font along with the eye of the shiekah symbol together. My love for my kid and Zelda will never die so I know I will have zero regrets.

The Majora's Mask and Zelda sword ones are just amazing! Some of the pokemon ones are super cute.

Ew. I'd never get a tattoo. People can do whatever they want to their bodies, but lol. Why?

Consider the cheaper, less painful and less permanent alternative: the T-shirt.

Interesting, I wanted to add a few Nintendo tattoos (LoZ, Splatoon) for a long time, but didn't yet because I wanted to come up with an original design. Well maybe it's time I finally did it.
Anyway, I'd love having a gaming-centric tattoo shop around!

@Kit Who wants to become 60 anyway? I know I don't.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE I don't see how having a tattoo would be self-mutilation, but if you truly think that, wearing clothes, doing sports, diets, cutting/shaving your beard/hair, cutting your nails, being operated at in a hospital and a lot of other stuff would count as self-mutilation as well.

Hah, can't believe all the people having hissy fits over what other people do. Anyhoo, I would love a tattoo (probably Bowser or Wolf O'Donnell), but I'm such a pansy with a low tolerance for pain, that I just keep on putting it off.

@shani Google "tattoo & psychology". Yes, some are alright and tasteful but some are a symptom of an underlying condition.

I hate doing sit-ups so I got a six pack tattooed on my stomach. I can no longer see my penis when I look down but I look RIPPED with my shirt off .

@shani you might feel differently nearer the time

I wonder how these people will feel about these tattoos when they are in their 50's/60's

@Kit Nope. I don't even want to come near that age where people can get senile or don't understand the world around them anymore or get reactionary, racist and destroy the future of younger generations.
Even the thought of becoming 50 is terrifying! Granted, as a teenager I couldn't even imagine reaching 30. But now I'm 33 and it feels waaaaaay too long. I seriously don't understand how people can bear living in this world for that long or why anyone would want that. Anyway, I don't even want to run the risk of getting close to that age and second-guessing my decision. That's why I'm gonna plan my death beforehand and sign off with a big celebration.

@JayJ There are people with tattoos in their 50's and 60's and they feel totally fine.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE I just did that and what the results essentially say is: 'tattoo's express the person's feelings'. Wow, what a new and unexpected discovery!

Seriously, what does that have to do with anything? Yes, tattoos are a way to express yourself, just like many other things are (art, sports, work, politics, posts at blogs, forums, clothes etc.).
Sure, some tattoos might be a symptom of an underlying condition, but that doesn't have to do with tattoos but with that condition (and more importantly, the cause of that condition).

So your original post could've basically also have said: 'People who write sad songs are self-mutilating' or 'people who throw themselves into work as a distraction are self-mutilating' or 'people who exercise excessively are self-mutilating'.
Are you getting my point? It's basically the same argument as 'people who play shooters have anger issues'. It ignores the cause and badmouths the effect.

But to get back to the first sentence of this comment: So what? Let people express their feelings/problems/views - even if it might be worrying in some case - via their tattoos, just like other people express themselves via other means. It's better if they express what's on their mind than having everything bottled up inside...

If I ever get a tattoo one day I’d love to design my own master sword tattoo to put on my back, in black and white. I’m not sure how cliche that is but I don’t care haha

Tattoos are not for me, but those look to be nicely done.

The tagline drew me in the article and I was disappointed by a lack of Splatoon.

Otherwise, cool ink, bro. That Tepig surfing was really cool!

As for the subject of getting a tattoo (I will regret joining this discussion but here we go) I have nothing against it, but it's not something I would want. I think some are cool, but I wouldn't get one.

However, I know this traveling evangelist who has a tattoo of his now passed away grandson's favorite Bible verse. That kind of stuff is extra cool to me.

I do to how to put pix on here... I would show all my tats I'm covered in ninty tats

@shani There is a big difference between a basic tattoo or something like a military tattoo and some huge bright and colorful video game character tattoos as someone gets older. The bright and colorful cartoon character tattoos don't age with a person nearly as well and tend to look ridiculous on an old person, especially when they get all faded and look odd due to the way a persons skin ages and so on.

I don’t have any Nintendo tattoos but I do have a Yoda tattoo a Marines tattoo and two others. To those who say “what will that look like when your 60” I say everything on you is going to look less appealing at 60, most 60 year olds I know don’t really worry about body image. Most of my elderly family have tattoos from the military, my great grandfather had a hula girl on his forearm from when he was in the Navy in WW2.

@JayJ That's my feelings to when it comes to video games in general (not even tattoos, but just outwardly being a gamer)...how it's weird for an adult to like things like Pokemon. How video games still have that childish stigma (even when they're not even kiddie games). But I also think it depends on who you are as a person.

For example, I met two 50 year-old customers in retail who were obsessed with old cartoons that are no longer relevant. One was this dumb fat guy who loved Tom and Jerry, and the other one was an older, well-dressed guy who loved Scooby-Doo. First guy came off as a childish weirdo, and the second as an accomplished, respectable person with a quirky obsession. That second guy is who I want to be.

Anyway, I think I'll get a Pokemon tattoo on my leg, and some new clothes from Calvin Klein to balance it out...

I think the art from this article looks great. It has me thinking of a pixel mega man for my next tat. I love The pixel Mario above the shell tattoo.

@JayJ You're right about the ageing of the skin of course (just another reason not to get old).

But the other part ('The bright and colorful cartoon character tattoos don't age with a person nearly as well and tend to look ridiculous on an old person') is highly subjective and based on the ridiculous sentiment that an adult shouldn't enjoy bright and colourful video games, comics, animes etc.
In my opinion that's a very outdated outlook which isn't compatible with the modern-day zeitgeist.
And WTH is a military tattoo?!

...Is it just me or the most judgmental people are the folks that are complaining about people that don't want to get one?

Wonderful work! Not for me, but hey! kudos!

Talking about what someone else's tattoo will look like at 50 is a sign of the underlying mental illness of being an elitist douchebag. Whereas an older person with wrinkled tats will still be infinitely cooler to game and hang out with than the hateful tattoo hater who will probably die alone anyway.

Yuck, one should never put graffiti on one's body.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
There is a correlation between the 2 for sure but man oh man my tattoos are probably the safer of the 2 major forms of self mutilation but that's just my opinion and you're more then entitled to yours.

@HauntingNostrils

Intelligent comments are a rarity on this site.

The day I give a rat’s backside about what other people (outside of my direct circle) do to their own body is the day life isn’t worth living. If they want to have plastic surgery to look like Bowser that’s nothing to do with me. They are doing what makes them happy and I respect that, even if i wouldn’t personally do it. Who are they harming?

I don’t and will probably never tattoo but kudos to those that want to.

@Hotfusion I don't take as dim a view as you pertaining to the mental capabilities of the people who post on here, but I do think that people who try and play the "Hey I'm cool with that, it's none of my business" card often lack any real substance and prefer to garner approval via disingenuous means, rather than hold an unpopular opinion.

It's the nice, old, middle-ground, guy archetype that makes for a person who stands for nothing and folds for even less. I haven't got time for that kind of spineless pandering.

@HauntingNostrils

And I agree. I do not care what one does as long as they are not hurting me or mine, or to a lesser degree anyone else. A person tattooing themselves is not hurting me or anyone else.

Where I stand up and am ready for war is when I consider the actions of an individual/party is “too much” or gone “too far”.

This is of course subjective.

The spineless ones are those that turn a blind eye to the wrongs that are within their power to put right.

That’s how I see it, but to each their own opinion.

I really cant believe some of the comments on here! tattooing is an art form, and anyone who thinks otherwise really doesn't have a clue, just to be able to come up with designs and draw them alone is so hard, let alone drawing them with needles on skin! If tattoos aren't your thing fine, thats what the world is about different opinions. but don't judge a person or try and make them feel they have done something wrong by having them! there is enough judgement in this world without stuff like that. As a person who has one of the tattoos pictured here, John is an artist and im proud to have his work on my body for life. As the old saying goes, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything!!

@noobish_hat I'm assuming you tagged me by mistake.

@noobish_hat If I'm mistaken you will need to make a coherent response to me. Otherwise I'd appreciate it if you save both of us some time and ramble at someone else.

@noobish_hat gotcha, you are just going to be nonsensical and needlessly insulting. Have a wonderful day, please don't tag me again.

@DeathUriel Sounds to me like you wanted to prove something to yourself. Good for you if you don't regret your tattoos and it makes you feel like you are strong willed or whatever. But my comment was only aimed at some of those ugly tattoos of ephemeral pokemon, DK or Majora's mask. Liking something doesn't mean you need to be branded. Although it would be funny to see some people with a huge BTC on their arm.