July 2nd, 2021

Descendents Tattoos

It's no surprise that one of punk's most iconic logos became one of its most popular tattoos.

Here’s a look behind the scenes into how the sausage gets made here at Inked.

I was getting ready to throw together an article featuring patriotic tattoos for the Fourth of July. Is it something we’ve done before? Oh God yes. But it’s still the sort of thing you like to have for SEO as we chase the almighty clicks.

I was less than enthused on the idea, but I started to get to work. I threw on some music to make the task pass a little faster, so why not make it songs about America to really double down on the patriotic mood in the office, right? Then this song came on and completely undid my plans.

“We flipped our fingers to the king of England,” is a top-tier opening line for a song. “‘Merican” is one of my favorite Descendents songs, probably because I’m a history nerd, and it sent me down a different rabbit hole where I just put on a Descendents playlist instead of the “Patriotic” one I had started with. Then I thought, “Why not make an article about Descendents tattoos instead?”

So here we are. The Descendents are one of the most prolific bands of all time, or at least they are when you consider that 3/4 of the band were also in ALL. If you haven’t checked out “Filmage,” the documentary about the two bands, I give you permission to watch it then come back to this article. It’s amazing.

Back in the late ’70s/early ’80s when the Descendents got together, punk rock was mostly serious business, particularly in southern California. Bands like Black Flag, the Germs or the Circle Jerks didn’t sing about trivial matters like girls and they certainly didn’t sing about drinking coffee and eating food. The Descendents brought a sense of humor to the genre and a poppier sound much more reminiscent of what the Ramones were doing in NYC than the hardcore that dominated the southern California scene.

Not only to the Descendents have an unimpeachable catalog of bangers but they have very heavily influenced anything we consider pop punk today—from Green Day to NOFX to My Chemical Romance to ModSun. 

Plus, they have one of the better logos in all of rock music. The little line drawing of lead singer Milo has been doodled on thousands of desks and tattooed into the skin of hundreds of Descendents fans over the years. Enjoy some Tattooage.

 

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