At one time, having a tattoo was a bold statement that put you on the outskirts of society, while simultaneously making you look super cool. All my heroes growing up had tattoos. All my heroes were dirtbags in loud bands, but still.
Today all having a tattoo means is you stole some wine coolers from your mom, and made it to the strip mall with enough money for a star on your shoulder blade. So now you better get a good quality tattoo of something original or you’ll never have more street cred than the captain of your high school mathletic program.
When Corey Graves was a wrestler, he always struck me as CM Punk-lite. He had a bunch of tattoos like Punk, but none of the charisma behind them. It wasn’t until he started commentating that I got to really like him. Now I’m a huge fan.
So I was interested to see what Superstar Ink would be like, and if his subjects had what I considered to be good tattoos. For me, it has to look cool, and have an interesting story. If the story is good enough, the less cool looking the tattoo has to be.
You’d be hard pressed to find someone in a wrestling ring that DOESN’T have at least one tattoo. Superstar Ink is a look at some of the superstars’ permanent body paint, and this episode is all about The Architect, Seth Rollins.
Wrist lock
Corey’s guest on this episode is Seth Rollins, who has tattoos but isn’t really defined by them. Like, when I think of Rollins the last thing I think of is that squiggle down his back. But maybe he's got some cool stories that go with what are essentially everyman tattoos.
After admitting they bonded over A Day To Remember’s music (I’m not gonna judge their musical tastes here, just the tattoos), Seth tells Corey about the tattoo on his left wrist, which he calls “Remnants of a Burning Page.” It looks like a piece of paper with the word “forever” on it.
It also looks like it was done at home, but I have nothing against homemade tattoos. Especially if they have a cool story behind them. And he got it when he was young so slack is given.
So, cool, he still likes it, but then he tries to explain the meaning of it and I think it has something to do with the fact that he “did a lot of writing” when he was 16, but also that he listened to (Backwards K) Korn and Nu-Metal. And that he was straight edge and misses long car rides?
It’s not explained well, and the “forever” part is never explained. Maybe that’s how long he likes his car rides.
Bushido or BushiDON’T?
On to the spine squiggle, which upon closer inspection is clearly Japanese characters, and Seth says they mean “Bushido.” My immediate thought is “Oh man, Seth played Bushido Blade on the original Playstation!” but nope. He got it from a Tom Cruise movie. And not a good one like Collateral.
Also, if you need video graphics to explain your tattoo, just make up a better story. Maybe he could tell people that after pursuing his dream of making boatload’s of cash doing money business in New York City, he realises that his true passion is wrestling in Jamaica. He can also tell all his friends that the characters mean “Cocktail.”
Last thought: Seth’s wrist tattoo actually looks a little bit like the outline of his home state of Iowa. So I figured that was on purpose and that part of the explanation was edited out. Because the absence of an explanation is probably less boring than Iowa.
The only problem with that is his tattoo actually looks MORE like his neighbouring state, South Dakota. Overall I was unimpressed with Seth's ink and was left more confused about them than before, but he seems like a nice guy.
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