The Kills Tattoo Their Fans To Promote New Album

In the ever-changing record industry bands are struggling to find new ways to market their albums. Even the most fervent fans seem reluctant to purchase albums this day, why not sweeten the deal by giving them a free tattoo at the legendary Shamrock Social Club? That’s exactly what The Kills did with the release of their first album in five years Ash & Ice.

Fifteen lucky fans were chosen to get small tattoos, each approximately 1 inch in diameter, of symbols related to songs from the album. All 13 songs on the album have symbols that correspond with them; these symbols include an eye, a pair of dice, a lucky horseshoe and more. Rounding out the tattoos were a volcano and a martini glass from the cover of the album.

Some of the fans were getting their very first tattoo and we can’t think of any better way to pop your cherry than getting a unique symbol relating to one of your favorite bands tattooed by a legend like Mark Mahoney. For free!

All the tattooing took place on one crazy night last month and the band made a video of the festivities. You can watch as all sorts of people get together to be inked in support of one unifying idea. It’s a pretty cool thought when you take a minute to ponder it. What we really like is that they didn’t turn to just anybody to ink the relatively simple symbols. The tattoos were done by Mahoney, Max Hanson and Isaiah Negrete, three highly respected and skilled tattoo artists.

The video documenting the whole ordeal is entitled “Under the Gun,” and you can give it a watch down below. The Kills are urging other fans to get ink of the symbols and to share them on Instagram using the hashtag #thekillsunderthegun. And while we would have preferred if they had used the word “machine” instead of gun, it’s still a pretty rad project. We hope that this is just the first of many different tattoo related promotions between bands and their fans. Oh, and even if you didn’t get a free tattoo we highly recommend giving Ash & Ice a listen. Maybe it will inspire you to get some ink of your own.