Got an Awesome Liberty-Themed Tattoo?

Time to show it off in Reason's first (and probably last) ink contest.

Reason

Got an amazing liberty-themed tattoo? Let us see it.

As Damon Root writes in his cover story, "Tattoos vs. the State" for the upcoming issue of Reason magazine (Hey! Why aren't you a subscriber?), "Over the past half century, tattoo artists have been subjected to all manner of overreaching, ill-fitting, and just plain nonsensical government controls. They've been hassled by clueless health departments, shut down by moralizing zoning boards, and outlawed entirely by busybody city councils and state legislatures. But tattoo artists can be a prickly bunch, and increasingly they're opting to fight back." Join the fight and exercise your free speech rights in Reason's first-ever tattoo contest.

Submit a decent, well-lit, PG-rated photo of your tattoo here, along with any backstory you'd like to share by April 20th at midnight. 

Heck, it's not too late to get a tattoo for the sole purpose of entering this contest. Think about it.

We'll showcase the best ink on Reason.com and hand out Readers' Choice and Editors' Choice awards. Winners will receive bragging rights and some Reason swag.

Comments

[Rhywun]

Sorry – I don’t even tatt, brah.

[Citizen X]

Come on, we all know you got that full-back tattoo of a Ayn Rand, tastefully nude.

[Ken Shultz]

The link went to bookface.

I stepped in some bookface commenter once. I couldn’t get the smell out for weeks.

[Scarecrow & WoodChipper Repair]

A prickly bunch — O you divil!

[Suthenboy]

Every tattoo looks like the word ‘cliche’ to me. My eyes just gloss over and I don’t ever see details then ten seconds later I don’t even remember having seen one.

[Rhywun]

Yeah, I can’t be bothered to inspect them very closely. Unless it’s someone I’m sleeping with, I really am not that interested in the attention-seeking details.

[Jinx Ovaltine, Jr.]

THIS IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN ON FRIDAYS. *sobs*

[Idle Hands]

My body is a temple.

[R C Dean]

No reason it can’t be decorated. Many temples are, you know.

[Idle Hands]

Mine is more spartan, I spend my weekly collections on boozing, fucking and smoking.

[Idle Hands]

I’m still trying to get a Tax Exemption.

[UnCivilServant]

Ink is ugly.

[Idle Hands]

Ink isn’t ugly. Old, fat, ugly and overweight people are ugly.

[UnCivilServant]

Ink on ugly people makes them uglier. Ink on pretty people makes them less so. Ergo, ink is ugly.

[R C Dean]

Ink is like everything else: 80% of it is crap.

Of course, that means 20% of it isn’t.

And, of course, de gustibus and all that.

[Ken Shultz]

Nice ink doesn’t make ugly people uglier.

Beautiful ink on an ugly person makes that part of them beautiful.

There’s this real hottie I’ve been seeing. I used to say that you never want to see a tattoo below the bellybutton or above the ribs, but she’s got this tattoo that comes peaking up out of her jeans when she’s wearing the right shirt. Even when she’s not wearing something where you can see it, I know it’s there. And it drives me nuts in a really good way.

Women are like flowers. They’re all beautiful in their own way. Some of them have tattoos that accentuate their beauty. It’s like clothing. Some of them lay around in sweats and look a mess. Some of them look so good in sweats, you don’t even want to see them wearing anything else. Well, she was wearing only sweats that time, but still. They’re like flowers. Something may not look great on a rose, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t look great on a daisy.

[Zeb]

Remember, this is the guy who doesn’t like beer, wine or whiskey.

There are a lot of crappy tats out there these days, and you really have to be the right kind of person to carry off lots of visible tattoos. But I think they can be very nice.

Personally, I like really small things that aren’t really noticeable on myself.

[Rod Flash]

Too easy. I’ll leave it for somebody else.

[Lord at War]

With the name “Rod Flash”, it wasn’t necessary…

[JoWaDat889]

Dude that guy doesnt have a clue man. WOw.

http://www.Web-Privacy.tk

[Jinx Ovaltine, Jr.]

Is the Mortal Kombat Dragon logo sufficiently libertarian? Asking for a friend.

[Citizen X]

Well, the Venn diagram of “libertarians” and “complete nerds” does have an awful lot of overlap…

[Idle Hands]

No because libertarians will never experience a flawless victory.

[Slammer]

Finished him!

[The Last American Hero]

No. NAP and all that.

[R C Dean]

Nobody is forced into the ring in Mortal Kombat, so its all good?

[Idle Hands]

It’s like you never even watched the movie. Smdh

[R C Dean]

True. I didn’t.

*Checks wiki for plot summary*

Holy shit. They made a movie out of that?

[LynchPin1477]

They made a *sequel*

[Notorious UGCC]

Depending on circumstances, it reads either “Johnson” or “Johnson for President – we shall make the United States of America Great Again!”

[Notorious UGCC]

(I mean that some parts of the tattoo are in invisible ink which becomes visible when lemon juice is applied)

[Uncle Jay]

RE: Got an Awesome Liberty-Themed Tattoo?
Time to show it off in Reason’s first (and probably last) ink contest.

I’m considering getting a tattoo on my left butt cheek that says “Kiss,” and another tattoo on my right butt cheek that says “This.”
Then I want to show it to Comrade Sanders, Trump the Grump, Hiterly and the rest of the republicans and democrats who take the time and trouble to fuck up our lives.
Any bets on how long it will take them to march me off the local gulag?

[Poppa Kilo Sierra]

“Oh, and there’s Obama in the middle!”

[Citizen X]

Racist.

[B. Woodrow Chippenhaus]

Maybe I’ll get “Created by an unlicensed tattoo artist.” as a tribal band around my bicep.

[Unicorn Abattoir]

Somewhere in the bowels of a building in Washington, D.C., a government regulator is preparing a subpoena to compel you to reveal the name of this artist.

[The Master McMonocle]

My girlfriend gets mehndi on her arms for weddings in which she’s a bridesmaid. The first time her employer complained, she said it was “cultural” and they shut up. She pulled the same thing with her nose ring. Next up is mid-riff for Ram Navami (casual Friday + “cultural”). Is “kinda sticking it to the man” libertarian enough, despite not being a real tattoo?

[R C Dean]

Next up is mid-riff for Ram Navami (casual Friday + “cultural”).

If she can show her midriff at work, that is a very casual Friday, indeed.

[The Master McMonocle]

This one will be pushing it. She can always rewrap her sari if she has to.

[Zeb]

My religion requires that I have my dick out all day on Fridays.

[Notorious UGCC]

You know who else wanted enemies of the government to be tattooed?

[The Master McMonocle]

1981 Rolling Stones?

[Slammer]

Winner gets to see Kennedy’s ink?

[Fist of Etiquette]

If I was the leader of the libertarians, I wouldn’t allow tattoos.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

If I did get tattoos, I’d probably go with that ‘amagi’ symbol that Liberty Fund uses, for the first written instance of liberty / tax resistance.

But that’s after I get a Moogle on my shoulder.

[This Machine]

Kupo! Kupopo!

[Greg Loves His Woodchipper]

That’s what I have, on my left shoulder blade.

The ama-gi that is, not the Moogle.

[LynchPin1477]

I’ve long thought about getting a tattoo, but have never been able to think of something with enough personal meaning. And I don’t really have the look for it.

[thrakkorzog]

I couldn’t think of anything, so I went meta and got a hula girl on my right bicep. Now my right bicep won a bunch of awards. Now It’s a year waiting list to get a tattoo from the girl who gave me a tattoo.

[LynchPin1477]

On the right kind of person, a full-back liberty tree being watered with the blood of tyrants would look pretty bad ass.

[Idle Hands]

the problem is that the right kind of person now might not be the right kind of person 10 years from now.

[LynchPin1477]

10 years plans are for commies!

[DOOMco]

I’m sure some free staters have some.

[R C Dean]

Or even a slightly modified version of the Virginia flag/seal. Liberty standing on the corpse of a tyrant is hard to beat.

[Citizen X]

Plus, there is a boob.

[LynchPin1477]

I’d like to see that done as a statue and put right outside the White House, Capitol, and Supreme Court. With a slight modification that Liberty is pointing at each building in a “you’re next” sort of way. Also, Liberty is totally naked.

[R C Dean]

True story:

There is a statue of George Washington in front of the VA state capitol. He is looking at the capitol, and pointing to Tredegar Island, which was a prison when the statue was put up.

Make of that what you will.

[Scotticus Finch]

This might possibly be the first time in 20 years my tattoo of the sword from Braveheart brings me anything other than complete embarrassment! …Or at least anything along with the embarrassment.

[Granny Weatherwax]

I don’t think a winged sword piercing a unicursal hexagram with the word Cinibrand in scroll underneath counts, but ya I gots a tattoo. It’s nearly 30 years old now and getting fuzzy, maybe I should get it retouched.

[This Machine]

I kinda like this idea, only instead of EGAs, maybe have like, liberty bells or something. I dunno. Not that I would ever get a tattoo; I have enough distinguishing markings already, thank-you-very-much.

[Bureaucratic_Sex_Creep]

Sorry, I got a tattoo once of an eagle carrying the American flag, but it caught on fire in the back of an Applebees while I was on short-order detail, two days later I was in jail for burning the flag. My co-worker who was a biker and super patriotic was the one who turned me in, not before giving me the freedom-hating ass beating I deserved.

[saguaro]

Craig Ferguson has a “Join or Die” tattoo. Would that count?
http://zap2it.com/2016/02/join…..ke-tattoo/

[Michael]

God damn. That is fucking heavy.

[Lord at War]

Cool.

I always love him on “Celebrity Name Game” when they miss a President/ American History clue, he always says, “Some of us had to pass a test to be a citizen!”

[MoriahJovan]

Mine’s a tramp stamp from before there was such a thing. But I don’t let it show because it was only for me, to commemorate newfound liberty. The symbolism wouldn’t be obvious even if I did want to show it to all and sundry.

[Karinka]

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