YOUR QUESTION

08/11/2019 11:15:47 Fenrir

Hi Trevor. Firstly, I wanted to say thank you for all the interesting (and sometimes challenging!) music over the years, and for remining accessible to your fans in a way few others have. My question concerns tattoos - I am interested in them as they seem (to me at least) to be a way of publicly asserting aspects of one's identity . What influenced you to choose the designs that you have? I read somewhere that centipedes represent movement between the worlds of the living and the dead. Does this mean that you are a secret goth?

MY ANSWER:

I have a good friend covered in tattoos that told me none of them should have meaning. When I was first hesitant about my first tattoo and worried that it was a “life altering” decision, another good friend scoffed at that notion, which I found encouraging. I don’t believe there is any rule book on the matter. Representing something to the public is one possible result. Of course, there is the ink that no one can see as well. I chose a centipede because I think they are cool creatures. I’m fond of insects, arachnids, myriapods, and gastropods among others. Centipedes also hark back to the title of my first recording as a band leader — a title borrowed from the great B. Kliban. I may be a secret goth, but I’m probably more of a metal head. Crossover was big for me in the ‘80s.