I’m Brandy Bones and my first bunch of tattoos were done when I lived in Montana. The one that I decided not to cover up is a sacred heart on my right bicep. The guy who drew it was my first puppy love so I keep it to remind myself to follow my heart (but don’t be an idiot about it).
In Bellingham, WA, I got two traditional roses with red spider-webs on my chest and the next year I started my half sleeve. I had an infatuation with sea monsters so I got an old Norse woodcarving of a Kraken taking down a ship on my left arm. On the inside of my arm is a whale from an old sea map (which resembles a boar more than a whale) and my elbow has a ship’s wheel. Steve Hate from Old School Tattoo did me the honor of creating those pieces. I liked the idea of getting those ‘sea-monsters’ that at the time were rendered fearsome to keep people from venturing out to sea. Now we would never let something like that stop us from exploring which is my metaphor for: no ignorance = no fear.
My sister and I also have our Scottish clan motto Anderson (MacAnders) on our feet, a tattoo we got together for Xmas. One foot says “Stand” the other says “Sure” cause she had been through some tough times and I wanted her to always remember that she has two strong feet to stand on, and that her sister would always be there for her. We got those tattoos done by Phil at American Made in Missoula, MT.
A little more about that matching tattoo – John and I wanted to get tattoos on this particular European tour so a friend hooked us up with a place on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. I sent him the images and the description of what we wanted but he had done no prep so I stood over him and made him draw out a compass rose with an all seeing eye in the middle with a fleur de lis for north. I asked for the tattoo in brown ink (as a back up plan) and after he finally obliged John went first (as the noble test dummy). Right after we got tattooed we played a show to about 400 or 500 crazy-ass Germans and there was the tattooist – I even thanked him on stage as a final f-you after he realized he had just butchered the band. It was our own fault really, we should’ve turned right back around when the drawing wasn’t finished but hey, it made a good story! Bryan at Dark Day Tattoo in Vancouver did the honor of fixing that for us, its actually one of my favorite tattoos now. I also got a version of what could have been a cliché musician tattoo – f-holes – on my neck from Dark Day … and Bryan is halfway thru a bio-mechanical crow on my left side. I’m sure that won’t be the end of my tattoos – but it’s a good start.
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Brandy Bones is the bass superstar in Big John Bates!
Vancouver, BC, Canada – Catch Big John Bates playing Friday, December 23rd Big John Bates with guest DB Buxton
Tickets online at: www.ticketweb.ca
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Brandy Bones is proud to support the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society!
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