Tattoo humor: Highway to Hell, putting AC/DC tracks on backs

Highway to Hell, putting AC/DC tracks on backs

You have to admire some people, even if you wonder about them. Two men stood on the side of a road morning and afternoon for three days with a placard advertising an AC/DC concert which was held in Canberra a few years ago.

The reason?

It was a promotion for Radio FM104.7 and ticket-seller Ticketek.

The men, Chris Prostimo, 19, and Mark Whiting, 25, agreed to do it in exchange for meeting their idols and, wait for it, getting their autographs immortalised in tattoos on their backs.

Yep, that's right. They now have the signatures of the boys in the band, sans Bon Scott, tattooed on their backs.

The Canberra Times newspaper featured photographs of them on its front page.

The accompanying report said they had their backs signed by Angus Young, Brian Johnson, Phil Rudd, Cliff Williams and Malcolm Young on Saturday, joined 15,178 people in seeing the legendary heavy metal group on stage in Canberra, then spent the next morning at a tattoo shop getting the signatures made permanent.

I have never been able fathom the attraction of tattoos, let alone heavy metal hero-worship tattoos. Girls, bits of your bodies look just fine without adornments, trust me, and I am sure the girls would say the same about the guys.

Some while ago, I wrote about a workmate of mine, Willy, who confessed to us that he did have a tattoo, but couldn't show us right at that moment.

"Come on Willy, we're all blokes here. Drop you daks and give us a look," I said.

Turns out, he wasn't pulling our legs.

When he was younger, he had gone to a tattoo studio with some mates, and was promised a free tattoo, but he chickened out when he reached the head of the queue and was asked by the tattoo artist where exactly he wanted it.

Willy's life flashed before his eyes, as he thought about how his father might react if he arrived home with a tattoo of a very large anchor on his backside.

He wisely chose to get his tattoo on his best mate's arm.

"That's why I can't show it to you right at the moment," Willy told us. "It's MY tattoo but it's on HIS arm."

So what is it with the guys now carrying the AC/DC names on their backs?

Prostimo wasn't even born when raspy-voiced hard-living Bon Scott fronted the band for five years in the mid-to-late 1970s, when AC/DC first came to notoriety in Australia.

Scott, who had been a drummer in a couple of bands, helped cement the band's bad-boy image. He had a string of convictions for minor offences and had been rejected by the Australian Army for being socially maladjusted.

Scott died early in 1980.

He was found dead in the back seat of a car in a London street after an all-night drinking binge. Word was, he choked on his own vomit which is only a marginally less gruesome way to go than choking to death on someone else's vomit.

Scott was replaced by Brian Johnson and the band went from strength to strength.

It built on the big hits of the past, like High Voltage, TNT and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. To come was Back in Black, The Razor's Edge, Ballbreaker and Stiff Upper Lip, which lends its name to the band's current tour.

If you have ever heard the belting lyrics, It's a Long Way To The Top If You Want to Rock'n'Roll, how could you ever forget them?

I managed to, but only because I heard some alternative, underground lyrics, It's a Long Way to the Shop If You Want a Sausage Roll, and now I can't get those out of my head.

I keep coming back to the question: Why would anyone want to carry AC/DC on his back for the rest of their lives?

It's not like you can gaze lovingly at your back every night and recall fond memories about standing next to a road for three days, shaking some sweaty hands, nearly losing your hearing at a rock concert, then submitting to painful jabs from a tattoo artists for heaven knows how long.

And what happens when you get older and your musical tastes change?

Do you tell your inquisitive children, to the serene backdrop of Mozart on the stereo, that the AC/DC signatures came from a bunch of electricians you used to know? That might open a bigger can of worms.

No, it's definitely not for me.

In fact, if someone offered to give me a free tattoo of AC/DC band members on my back, I think I would have to be like Willy and call for volunteers.

Form an orderly line please.

Buxom blondes to the front and wait until I call your measurements.

Oh, and while you are waiting, please sign this form giving me viewing rights whenever I need them.

NB: I called this site Dunno because I kept drawing a blank when I had to put a name to it