The Tattooed Cover



Photo by Liz Devine

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As you may have noticed, someone got the Mercury logo tattooed on their lower back to grace the cover of our current issue on the streets right now.

We bet you have questions. If you need answers keep reading.

Is it real?

As real as this slide show shot the night the tattoo happened.

Why would someone do this?

Because it makes for a good story. Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Couldn't you have just Photoshopped it?

Yeah—but we didn't.

Did it hurt?

Yup.

Who inked the tattoo?

Michael A. Freeman at Oddball Tattoo.

Who got the tattoo?

The Mercury's sales manager's fishing buddy. Who else would do it?

Why would he do that?

I asked him while we were drinking beer at Club 21.

Did people get paid to do this?

Yeah, but not enough to say they did it for the money.

Did anyone else get a tattoo?

Yup. At one point the photographer, the art director, and the fishing buddy where all getting inked at the same time. Not the Mercury logo, though. I got one of the monkeys!

What's up with those silly monkey designs?

They were created by Bert Grimm, Portland's version of Sailor Jerry. Read more about Grimm here!

Is it foolish to get a weekly newspaper's logo tattooed onto your lower back during a time that every communications professor has a lecture entitled "The Death of Print Media"?

This is the Portland Mercury, where foolishness is both honored and championed. Besides we're not solely "print media," you're reading a blog right now.

Now, let me ask you a question.

How could we make our next cover better than this one?