Bravo 19/08 #

Translation:

For a while now the Tokio Hotel fans have been confused: Does drummer Gustav have a tattoo or not?
Now it is out: He has one! And two right away! Exclusive in the Bravo, Gustav shows his huge back tattoo and a small one on the arm. And now? The one that always claimed in interviews that he would never get a tattoo?!

“Secretly I always have thought about it,” he admits, “but I was waiting for the perfect image. First I wanted two birds on my shoulder, with a wreath and a sword in their beak. But what kind of mini sword would that be?” the drummer laughs. Then finally my saving came: “I met this really good tattoo guy and told him about my birds-with-sword problem. After that he sent me some sketches.” The 19 year old liked them so much, that even before the rehearsals of the 1000 Hotels European tour had finished in February, he’d run into the tattoo studio to have them done!
“It was really spontaneous, two people from our team went along with me. I didn’t tell the others at first,” he smiles. Seven hours is how long his first tattoo took: four hours for the lines, three hours for the shades and even after that: “It still isn’t totally ready.” The star tattoo on his arm went quicker. “That only took two and a half hours, Gustav tells.

Did it hurt? “Oh yes, it was really painful! The one on his back was especially painful”; according to Gustav. “We had to pause constantly. To stand all the pain I was most of the time biting on my own shirt.” But the suffering paid off. On Gustav’s back you can now see two wings, a sword and a wreath.

And what does the artist want to say with that?
“The wings stand for freedom. The sword is for all the bad things that have happened to me – or maybe will even happen in the future. The wreath stands for all the good things and positive achievements: the happiness with the band and my family for example” Gustav explains. Of all people his family was the one that had to get used to the piece of “body jewellery”: “My parents were always against tattoo’s. That’s why I didn’t tell them anything, when I was getting my star on my arm done. But now they like it.”

And what do the other Tokio Hotel rockers say?
“They really like it: Bill has gone through the pain himself. He immediately has taken a good look at it. Only Tom warned me: “Man, you know that will never come off?!” Though, that won’t shock the drummer – contrary: he just got a taste for it and wants more tattoo’s: “I will definitely take one more, but what, I won’t tell yet,” Now Gustav is preparing for the trip to the USA. Bill has recovered well from his vocal cord surgery: “during his vocal rehabilitation he is singing his own songs again – and is accompanied on the guitar by Tom,” band manager David Jost tells. How it looks now the band will be on a plane to the USA on 1 May.
Translated by beertje_86