Tattoo Ideas: Sci-Fi

With the recent release of movies like "Transformers", it's no surprise that there has been a resurgence of Autobot and Decepticon tattoos among fans of the popular 1980s cartoon series. My little brother is only eight years old, but he is so enamored with "Transformers" that he has plans to get Black Out, Autobot Jazz, Bumble Bee and Megatron tattooed on his arms as soon as he's old enough. And he's not the only one; aside from the Transformers figures, scroll through the galleries of bmezine, for example, and you'll find scores of tattoos detailing characters like Mr. Spock from "Star Trek" or the stormtroopers from "Star Wars", freaky Michael Meyers of "Halloween" notoriety and the murderous doll Chucky from the film of the same name. The movie "Beetlejuice" starring Winona Ryder is another favorite among sci-fi lovers, with tattoos ranging from Beetlejuice himself to the gigantic sandworms that live in the underworld.

There is nothing that exists on this earth or in our minds that cannot be translated and transformed into an image on our skin. If you can conceive of it, you can almost always find a tattoo artist who can create it into being -- like the alien baby ripping it's way out of a guy's back or the Isaac Asimov half-sleeve pictured below. The bottom line is that we cannot judge others for their choices. I personally would not enjoy having the man- and woman-eating venus fly trap from "Little Shop of Horrors" sprawled in permanent ink across my bicep and looking at me menacingly while I slept, but I don't have any sort of special relationship with the film. Perhaps the individual who chose to get that tattoo sees the plant as a metaphor for that which consumes, maybe he got it as a reminder not to mess with nature by artificial means or not to get too close to that which we do not understand.

Or maybe he simply loves the movie. There is certainly no shortage of science fiction productions in the media today, especially now, in the age of remakes like the reanimation of "War of the Worlds", "The Hitcher" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", old Hollywood classics are once again coming to life and appealing to a whole new generation of sci-fi fanatics.