30 Festive ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ Tattoos

In 1993, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” debuted and gave us the best known Halloween/Christmas hybrid film. Directed by Henry Selick, who’d go on to create 1996’s “James and the Giant Peach” and 2009’s “Coraline,” the stop-motion animated musical follows Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town—a place run by monsters that celebrates Halloween year round. Jack accidentally discovers Christmas Town and soon becomes obsessed with celebrating the holiday. Jack’s singing is voiced by Danny Elfman, who also wrote the movie’s song and the score.

In addition to Jack, the film features a number of other creepy characters, including a ragdoll named Sally (voiced by Catherine O’Hara) who’s Jack’s love interest, a mad scientist named Doctor Finklestein (voiced by William Hickey), the Mayor of Halloween Town (voiced by Glenn Shadix) and Oogie Boogie (voiced by Ken Page), the villainous bogeyman.

Although Tim Burton didn’t direct this film, he created the story and was a producer (alongside Denise Di Novi). The film began as a poem, which Burton wrote in 1982 while working for Walt Disney Pictures and he spent over a decade and a half working on it. The film was a critical and commercial success upon release, earning over $90 million at the box office and a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 1993 Academy Awards (losing out to “Jurassic Park.”) In honor of the film’s cult following, take a peek at 30 tattoos inspired by the famous characters in the gallery below.