Friday Five: Tattoos

It seems like more people than ever are sporting tattoos; here are a few of my favorite country songs about ‘em (it must be said that an honorable mention goes to the opening lines of Lucinda Williams’ “Right in Time”). Are any of you sporting country music-themed ink? Show us your tats!

• 5. “Tattoo” – Missy Raines & The New Hip

  Raines covered this Laurie Lewis song on 2009′s Inside Out. It’s a sultry, jazzgrass tune about wearing someone’s name “like a merit badge of love.”

• 4. “Tattoo of a Smudge” – Cherryholmes

  According to bluegrass blogger Second Cousin Curly, this fierce, Grammy-nominated tune is based on the Sharpie smudges left on musicians’ hands after signing autographs at the merch table.

• 3. “Crimson Dragon Tattoo” – Ray Wylie Hubbard

  This is one eerie tune, as the dude with the dragon tattoo hears said dragon whisper his name and “burn on [his] arm like the truth.” It’s like that X-Files episode where Jodie Foster is the voice of that pinup tattoo, only better.
  Check out a killer version from Hayes Carll.

• 2. “Love Scar” – Paul Thorn

  Paul Thorn is the greatest artist you’re not listening to. Check out this song (from last year’s Pimps and Preachers) about a woman who gets inked, has a one-night stand with the guy who inspired the tattoo, and is soon left alone with her new “love scar.”

• 1. “Coal Tattoo” – Kathy Mattea

  West Virginian Billy Edd Wheeler wrote this song that has been covered by acts like The Kingston Trio, Hazel Dickens, and Mattea on her masterful record Coal. The “strange tattoo” on the miner’s head wasn’t a deliberate inking; rather, it’s a blue mark left by some falling coal that almost killed him.