Travis Barker’s Tattoos and Their Meanings
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Travis Barker’s body has been his canvas over the years, and each tattoo has its own unique story. Learn the meaning behind his body art, here!
When it comes to Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker‘s skin, every empty space is an opportunity. Over the years, the punk rocker, 46, has racked up an impressive ink collection from many different tattoo artists.
Travis has also stood by his extensive ink, even clapping back at an Instagram critic who called his tattoos “ridiculous” and said he’d regret them with age by replying: “When I’m older I’m probably gonna hang with other badass tattooed dudes and generally look awesome. What are you gonna do when you just look like every other old person?”
Regardless of the haters, Travis has spent years curating his look, and now has nearly 100 tattoos. HollywoodLife dives into the meanings behind some of his most prominent pieces, here.
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Travis’ Kourtney-Inspired Tattoos
Travis is so often getting inked, he’s already developed a healthy roster of tattoos dedicated to fiancee Kourtney Kardashian. Since the couple first heated up in early 2021, Travis has received multiple tattoos linked, or directly tied to Kourtney. In March 2021, Travis posted a video to Instagram stories of himself tattooing the phrase “you’re so cool!” in loopy, casual handwriting on his thigh. Though many fans speculated that the tattoo is done in Kourtney’s handwriting, it ultimately was revealed to be a reference to the classic film True Romance. But Travis and Kourtney would wink at their own classic love story soon enough, dressing up as the main characters from the film for Halloween in 2021.
Travis has also shouted Kourt out even more directly, getting her name tattooed in script on his chest and even allowing her to tattoo “I love you” herself on his forearm. Though Kourtney herself doesn’t share Travis’ ink collection, the Poosh founder recently shared a photo of her trying his style on for size. In the pic, Kourtney rocked multiple temporary chest tattoos as she and Travis posed together.
Beyond inscribing new ink, Travis has also shown off his dedication to Kourtney by covering up old tattoos…namely, ones dedicated to his former flames. Travis recently covered up a blue heart tattoo of ex-wife Shanna Moakler‘s name with a large, filled-in scorpion tattoo for his Scorpio zodiac sign. To complete the gesture, he even tattooed the imprint of Kourtney’s lips by the scorpion as well. Now that’s romance.
Travis’ Right Arm Tattoos
Travis has called his right arm his “lucky” arm, due to the tattoos of his lucky number, 7, a pair of dice, a drumset, and a pair of drumsticks. On the left side of his body, Travis also has his initials, TLB, a lucky rabbit’s foot, and a tattoo of the devil logo from Black Label Skateboards, one of his favorite brands. Adding to the luck, tragically, is a reminder of someone Travis lost; he tattooed the name of deceased tattooist Trigz Rip on his forearm to honor him.
Though Travis has multiple tattoos dedicated to his late mother Gloria on his body, including her name under his chin and her image on his back, he also has a prominent tattoo honoring his late mother on his right arm as well. Gloria died from cancer when Travis was just 13, and he’s long credited her as one of his first inspirations when it came to wanting to become a rock drummer.
Travis’ Left Arm Tattoos
As for his left arm? Maybe this one has worse luck. Though Travis Travis got this tat with fellow artist Machine Gun Kelly to celebrate MGK’s upcoming album ‘born with horns’… only for the artist to ultimately change the album name to ‘Mainstream Sellout’ six months later. His left arm is also the location of the scorpion cover-up he did to remove Shanna’s name.
However, Travis has also made his arm an homage to other parts of his life besides music, including tattooing the logo of his vegan restaurant Crossroads Kitchen on his forearm. Travis also grew up religious, and has multiple crosses and images of Jesus on his body including the phrase “Inri” which references Jezus of Nazareth.
In a recent session with tattoo artist Chuey Quintanar that was live-streamed on Instagram, Travis added the phrases “FWT” and “LLJ” onto his arm. Though it’s still unclear what “FWT” stands for, Chuey shared that “LLJ” stands for “Long Live Jahseh,” a reference to the late rapper XXXTentacion.
Travis’ Leg Tattoos (And The Ones He Lost)
The story behind Travis’ leg tattoos is one of tragedy, loss, and, ultimately, perseverance. Travis received many of his first tattoos, including the logo of the hardcore bands Descendents and Dag Nasty and a rumored razor-blade etching of his first girlfriend Toni’s name. But the memories of his youth Travis tattooed on his legs were all lost after the drummer was involved in a 2008 plane crash, where he received third-degree burns on 65% of his body. It took 16 separate surgeries to reconstruct the skin on his legs, during which Travis lost all the tattoos he had developed over the years.
Thirteen years after his narrow survival, however, Travis has returned to tattooing his legs and is currently rebuilding the art he lost. He has re-tattooed the Descendents logo that once meant so much to him, and also shared a video of consistent favorite tattoo artist Chuey Quintanar tattooing a detailed skull onto his knee.
Since he’s begun the reconstruction process, Travis has also added a spider web by Chuey on his other knee and two adorable tattoos on his thigh he let kids Landon and Alabama design themselves; Landon chose to write the initials “L” and “A” by a cross, while Alabama tattooed a little heart with an A inside it.
Travis’ Scalp Tattoos
Though Travis has rocked many hairstyles from a mohawk to shag, these days a shaved head suits him best; that way, he can show off the many tattoos on his head. He has a detailed tattoo of the Virgin Mary on the top of his scalp, as well as script reading “Family Loyalty Respect” directly below, and “Family First” tattooed nearby. He also has “One Life, One Chance” on the back of his scalp, and a rose tattooed by his ear that covers up the name of his first ex-wife Melissa Kennedy, who Travis divorced in 2002.
Travis’ Chest & Neck Tattoos
If one thing is prominent on Travis Barker’s chest, it’s his love for Cadillacs. From the classic emblem itself to a portrait of a ’53 model to a huge “Cadillac” written along his side Travis said took 12 hours to complete, his obsession with the car manufacturer is evident all over his body. In addition to the car worship, Travis’ chest also features a woman holding a boom box, two spark plugs on either pectoral muscle and the phrase “Lover” written in large script by his pelvis.
Travis’ most prominent neck tattoo, reading “Can I Say,” has a double meaning. The phrase is both the name of his 2015 autobiography and the title of an album by hardcore band Dag Nasty Travis has said was influential to his youth, and pursuit of becoming a drummer. Also on his neck, Travis has a portrait of Marilyn Monroe, a racing flag, and the phrase “Live Fast Die Young” surrounded by a colorful banner. Recently, Travis added the phrase “Don’t trust anyone” to his throat as well. We don’t know exactly who Travis doesn’t trust, but putting it in ink, he must be sure about it.
Travis’ Hand Tattoos
Travis’ hand tattoos speak profoundly to his mottos of hard work and family first. On his thumb, he has the phrase “120%” tattooed, as well as “Self Made” and “Dues Paid” written across his knuckles. Though at one point he also had a hand tattoo dedicated to wife Shanna, tattoo artist Scott Campbell gave him a recent cover-up of a skull with tulips for crossbones, not the first skull OR tulip to grace Travis’ body or even his arm. Finally, on his wrists, Travis has the names of kids Landon and Alabama inscribed in black ink. Finally, in a tribute to Frank Sinatra, Travis has “I Did It My Way” tattooed on his pinkies.
Travis’ Face Tattoos
Though they’re likely to upset the most critic, Travis actually has the fewest of his tattoos on his face; he only has three. By his right eye, he has the phrase “Blessed” and a small black star inked, and by his left eye he has a small anchor. Though they may be small, Travis’ face tattoos certainly fit him right in with the “badass tattooed dudes” he told the Instagram critic he’d like to grow old with.
Travis’ Back Tattoos
Travis’ back is dedicated almost entirely to his family, with most of the space being taken up by large-scale portraits of his mother, father, and two children. Between the sweet portraits of Landon and Alabama is a detailed image of Jesus Christ, that appears to be looking over at little Alabama. Travis told Vice the entire back tribute took over four to five sessions of 10 hours each, with two tattoo artists working on him at once. But before he even began the enormous back piece, Travis got his first large back tattoo, an enormous inscription of one word along his lower back: “Hope.”