The script on his stomach:
Kirk: This kind of script on the stomach is called a �rocker�. I had it made in 1995 in San Francisco. It took about four hours. It simply says where and when I was born. The name of the artist is Scott Silvia, he works in the bay area.

The flames:
I have these tattoos since 1996. I just like hot-rod flames, I was living a rather wild life back then. And I like fire! I had the outlines made in San Francisco and one side was also colored there. The other one was colored in New York later, when we finished the LOAD record there. It lasted quite a while, seven hours during the first session, that�s why I took a break in between. And it didn�t help at all that I was terribly hungover...

Left side just where the flames begin obove his hips: There are the letters DB (in red, hard to see if you don�t know it), the initials of a good friend who committed suicide. We were very close, so that tattoo is a memory of him. I have never showed this publicly before...

He�s got this little dark spot right above the triangle between his thumb and index finger on the left hand:
My first tattoo! I was only twelve back then. It was made from pulverized peppercorn, that has been ... no, seriously: I was punctured with a pencil back in school and it stayed. Somehow that�s a tattoo, too, ain�t it?

Btw, in one of the pictures it looks as if he�s wearing his navel piercing .

Now the interview. Warning: disturbing news ahead (I found them disturbing):

Q: You have been part of the metal circus since the age of 19, but you got your first tattoo when you were over 30. Why so late?

Kirk: Because I had to think about it for a long time. In 1985 I wanted to get a tattoo for the first time � that�s how I met Pushead. But I didn�t really like any of his pictures. Nowadays tattoos are something very common, so an idea has to mature until I feel comfortable with it.

Q: Do you ever think about how the script on your stomach will look like when your 65?

Kirk: That�s a good motivation to stay in shape ! Besides all tattoos turn into a big colored blur sooner or later.

Q: How do your surroundings react to the tattoos?

Kirk: My wife has more tattoos than I have! My mom just asked me why I do that to my body. But she�s part of a generation who associate tattoos with criminals and sailors anyway. I remember the moment when I showed the pictures to Lars for the first time. He just screamed �What the f*ck is that?� and called for James. Sometime later Lars just said �It seems we are a band with tattoos now�. Cliff had one, too; the Misfits skull.

Q: What kind of motive would you never have tattooed?

Kirk: The weirdest tattoo I ever saw had a guy in San Francisco. He had the sentence �F*ck the police� on the back of his neck! The dude is asking for trouble...

Q: How would you react, if you had a son and he would want to have a dragon tattooed on his arm at the age of 15?

Kirk: Not a problem. But if he�d decide he doesn�t like it anymore when he�s 20, I would tell him, he�d made the decision and would have to live with it. I think his maturity and his motivation would be more important for me. If he�d do it to impress a girl, he should rather think twice about it.

Now comes the scary part...
Q: Do you have any ideas for more tattoos?

Kirk: There is this Chinese philosophy that says that the body consists of different elements. Some people consist of mostly water, others of fire � or a combination. Since about five years I have come up with the following idea: On my back I want to have a big, raging Buddhist god, spitting fire, carrying a spear and even a couple of heads in his hands. He will be sitting on a burning lotus blossom, that will emerge from the flames on my sides. The water comes in with a surfing tattoo on my leg, as a counterpoise so to speak. I guess this all will last some 30 or 40 hours and it�s gonna hurt a lot. Maybe that�s why I haven�t done it yet... But it will happen after this tour!