Travel Back in Time with Arcade Tattoos

It’s hard to believe that kids, like our parents or grandparents, grew up without video games. Video games are ingrained into popular culture and today have an impact on our music, movies and television shows. We all have a favorite game from growing up and likely remember the first console we were gifted. I know that for me, I was never a big gamer myself, but enjoyed playing Oregon Trail on my computer and playing my cousin’s GameCube. Then, when the Wii came along, we got on board that bandwagon. Unfortunately, I was past the target audience of the Wii and after being used for a few years, it sat in our basement for about a decade. Then, after I’d escaped NYC to quarantine with my family in the sticks, my sister and I busted out the Wii on a rainy day. Our love for playing Wii Sports restarted and we soon became extremely competitive over games of bowling, golf and baseball.

Video games have a way of making us feel nostalgic for our youth, whether that was the mid 2000s, the 1990s or the 1980s. And if any generation had it good in terms of gaming, it was the kids of the late 1970s and early 1980s, who got to partake in the Golden Age of video games. In 1978, “Space Invaders” was released to the world, followed by other cult classic arcade games like “Asteroids” in 1979, “Pac-Man” in 1980 and “Donkey Kong” in 1981. Atari and Nintendo became the world’s leaders in the arcade revolution, with influence to this day. As time went on, personal computers and consoles replaced going to the arcade, but the love for video games continued to grow. Today, gaming is one of the most profitable industries on the planet—with trends including VR, live streaming and cloud gaming.

In honor of National Video Game Day, we’re celebrating the Golden Age of gaming with arcade tattoos. Take a look at tattoos of some of the most iconic arcade games of all time in the gallery below, then let us know your favorite video game in the comments section on social media.