Francis “Frank” Edward Turner is an English folk and punk singer and songwriter. He started his career as the vocalist of the band, Million Dead. He started his solo career in 2005 after the band split. He is currently accompanied by his band, The Sleeping Souls.
Frank Turner has many tattoos adorning his body. The singer is a big fan of getting inked and his fans follow him and get his designs too. Let us now take a look at the tattoos on his body and the meanings behind them.
1. ‘I STILL BELIEVE’ Tattoo
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Tattoo: The right upper arm of the singer has a tattoo of a man fighting a skeleton inside a box along with the words, “I STILL BELIEVE” tattooed below it.
Meaning: The tattoo of the words on his arm represents the name of one of his songs, “I STILL BELIEVE.”
2. Quote and Map Tattoo
Tattoo: The right bicep of the singer has the words, “What will survive of us is love“. There is a map outline of the state of Ohio below the quote along with the letters, “OH” inside it. There is also a tattoo of a design on his upper arm along with the words, “DEATH ‘N’ GLORY” tattooed along with it.
The singer posted the tattoo on his Instagram along with the caption,
“So after joking about getting an Ohio tattoo onstage last night, @rickaggro13 made me go through with it. Proud new ink! See you all in September.“
3. ‘Bird and Ball’ Tattoo
Tattoo: There is a bird tattooed near his elbow. There is also a pool ball along with the number, 13 tattooed on his upper arm.
4. ‘Warrior’ Tattoo
Tattoo: There is a tattoo of a warrior on his right forearm holding a staff with wings and a snake wrapped around it. There is also a tattoo of a banner tattooed below the warrior with the words, “TRAVELLERS, POETS, AND THIEVES” written on the banner.
Meaning: The tattoo on his arm is of the Greek God, Hermes carrying his staff, Caduceus. The tattoo of Hermes represents a restless soul that wants to fly as high as it can.
5. Hand Tattoo
Tattoo: The backside of his right upper arm has a tattoo of a hand on it.
6. Tree Tattoo
Tattoo: There is a tattoo of a tree on his right forearm, just below the tattoo of Hermes. The letters, “NF” are also tattooed inside the tree’s curved bark.
7. ‘Boston 2019’ Tattoo
Tattoo: There is a tattoo of a flower on the inner side of his right forearm, just where his elbow folds with the words, “BOSTON 2019” tattooed above and below the flower.
Meaning: The tattoo of the flower was gotten by Frank when he visited the city on tour. He showed his tattoo on Instagram explaining, “Good morning Boston! Today’s the day. @losteveningsfest starts today. Excited and proud to be here. Got some ink for the occasion. See you on Lansdowne Street!”
8. ‘Rose’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The inside of Frank’s right forearm also has a rose stick tattooed on it.
9. ‘Modern Leper’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The word, “Modern” is tattooed just below the tree on his right wrist. His left forearm at the same place has the word, “Leper” tattooed on it.
Meaning: The words together make up the name of Frank’s song, “The Modern Leper” which came in 2014.
10. Wrist Tattoo
Tattoo: The inside of the singer’s right wrist has a few words tattooed on it.
11. ‘Silhouette’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The singer later added a tattoo of a silhouette of a man on the inside of his right wrist.
Meaning: The tattoo on his arm is a tribute tattoo to one of his idols, Joe Strummer.
Frank wrote, “Got me a little Joe Strummer ink last night in Mannheim, courtesy of @saschi_mccormack – lovely! @joestrummerfoundation”
12. Portrait Tattoo
Tattoo: The lower side of his right forearm has a portrait of Elvis Presley in his iconic pose on it.
Meaning: Frank got the tattoo of the late singer as he is one of Frank’s idols.
13. ‘Note’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The sides of both his forearms have a musical note design tattooed on them.
14. ‘Fox and Bird’ Tattoos
Tattoo: The hands of the singer have two large tattoo designs on them. His right hand has a tattoo of a fox on it and his left one has a tattoo of a bird. Both the designs are encased inside a circular design. There is also a date tattooed near the ring on his left hand.
Meaning: The tattoo of a fox represents fertility, prosperity, and well-being, and the tattoo of the crow on his hand represents a bad omen. There is another crow tattooed on his body as well as you will soon find out.
15. ‘FREEBORN’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The fingers of the singer’s hand also have letters tattooed on them. His hands joined together to spell out the word, “FREEBORN”. There are little designs tattooed on the lower parts of his fingers as well such as a carnival mask, exclamation marks, quotes, and designs.
16. ‘Star’ Tattoo
Tattoo: There is a star tattooed on his left forearm. The star also has the letter, “L” tattooed inside it which is the logo of the band Lucero. This tattoo is a homage to that band.
17. ‘Cat’ Tattoo
Tattoo: There is a large black cat tattooed on the upper side of Frank’s left forearm. There is also a safety pin tattooed next to the cat and a banner below it that reads, “VIRTUTE”
Meaning: The tattoo on his arm comes as an inspiration from one of his favorite songs, “Plea from a cat named Virtute” which was released by The Weakerthans in 2003. Frank also sang a version of the song and released it in 2014 in his album, Polaroid Picture.
18. Hands Tattoo
Tattoo: There is a tattoo of two hands reaching out towards each other near the singer’s left elbow. The words, “DON’T PANIC” are also tattooed above his elbow.
Meaning: The hands tattooed on his arm represent the name and cover of his new album. The hands represent the cover and the neam of the album is, “Be More Kind”
19. ‘Freddie’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The lower side of his left forearm has another tattoo of a portrait of a famous musician on it. It is a portrait of Freddie Mercury from Queen striking his iconic pose.
Meaning: The tattoo of Freddie on the singer’s arm is another tribute tattoo, just like one of many of his idols.
20. ‘Cloud’ Tattoo
Tattoo: There is a cloud tattooed on his left bicep that has the words, “There ain’t no pleasing you”. There is also a smiley tattooed on his left forearm just below where his elbow folds.
Meaning: The words tattooed inside the scribbled cloud represent the name of the song, “ain’t no pleasing you” that Frank sang in 2018.
21. Design Tattoo
Tattoo: There are a few designs tattooed on the inside of the singer’s left forearm. The designs are simplistic and are made out of geometrical shapes merged together. There are also four dark blocks tattooed near his wrist that represent “Black Flag Four Bar” and a word tattooed below them. His right pinkie finger has the Omega symbol tattooed on it.
22. ‘Bird’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The inside of his left forearm also has a tattoo of a silhouette of a bird sitting on a barbed wire on it, just where his elbow folds, near the smiley. The singer shared this tattoo on his Instagram as well.
23. ‘Hourglass’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The backside of his left upper arm has a tattoo of an hourglass on it. The setting sun behind the sand can be seen in the upper half and the moon with diamond-shaped stars can be seen in the lower half of the hourglass. There is a banner tattooed next to the hourglass as well with the word, “LOSING” written on it.
Meaning: The tattoo of the hourglass on his arm represents how time is fleeting and how we lose a little bit of it every day as the morning turns into the night so we should make the most of what time we have.
24. ‘Wembley’ Tattoo
Tattoo: There is another tattoo inside a frame on his left upper arm just like his right one. There is a cock tattooed inside this one and the word, “WEMBLEY” is tattooed below the frame.
Meaning: The tattoo commemorates the name of his concert video, Live from Wembley that Frank released in 2012 which was shot at the Wembley Arena.
25. Words Tattoo
Tattoo: The words, “Virtual Surrender” are tattooed on the singer’s right shoulder and there is another word tattooed below them in another language.
26. Shoulder Tattoo
Tattoo: The left shoulder of the singer has a tattoo of the words, “Million Dead” tattooed on it along with the UKHC logo above it.
Meaning: Million Dead represents the name of Frank’s former band.
27. Words Tattoo
Tattoo: There chest of the singer has the words, “ARS LONGA VITA BREVIS” tattooed on it across his collar bones. There is also an anchor tattooed on the right side of his chest with the number, 1001 tattooed below it.
Meaning: The words tattooed across his chest are Latin for, “Art is long, life is short“. The tattoo of the anchor on his chest is a symbol of hope and calm.
28. Chest Tattoo
Tattoo: The left side of his chest has a tattoo of a knight riding a horse, fighting with a dragon breathing fire with a spiderweb behind the dragon.
29. ‘BORN TO RUN’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The stomach of the singer has a tattoo of the words, “BORN TO RUN” on it.
Meaning: The words on his stomach represent the name of one of his favorite songs, “BORN TO RUN”. Frank sang a cover of the song at The Stone Pony.
30. ‘Boat’ Tattoo
Tattoo: There is a tiny boat tattooed on the right side of his body, on his waistline. There is a sun tattooed above the boat and it is sinking. There are also two stick figures on the boat.
31. ‘Crow’ Tattoo
Tattoo: There is a tattoo of a large crow covering the right side of Frank’s body. The crow is seen sitting on a branch.
Meaning: The tattoo of the crow is not the first to appear on his body as there is one on his left hand too. And this is also not the last one. Frank revealed the tattoo on his Instagram, along with the caption, “Popped up to @modernbodyart today to finish off the first of my rib crows. Art by the ever-brilliant @matthuntmba. Got to get the other side done sometime!” revealing his plans to get another one on the other side of his body.
The tattoo of the crows on his body also represents his love for the band, “Counting Crows.” Frank told a story where he revealed how he fell in love with them. He said, “I was 11 or 12 when I first got into music… I was into thrash. Thrash, though, is hard to play when you’re beginning to learn the guitar. But my older sister was into the first Counting Crows record, August And Everything After, which came out in September 1993. That record is all open chords and easy stuff to play and, partly because it was quite easy, but mostly because it kept my sister happy, I learned how to play a bunch of those songs. Initially, I really don’t think I was that into the band. But, over time, as I played the songs more and more often, I grew to love that album and each of their subsequent releases.” He went on to talk about his idol from the band, Adam Duritz, and continued, “I now feel very strongly that Adam Duritz’s songwriting forms the foundations of my opinions and my view of songwriting. Duritz is a phenomenal writer and great lyricist. His melodies are brilliant, but there’s a rawness, honesty, and passion to what he does and what they do as a band. I’ve always loved that and their records sound as fresh now as they always did. I saw them live just the other day and they were brilliant.”
32. ‘Skull’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The entire back of the singer is covered by a large tattoo of the skull of a buffalo on it. There are also faded geometrical shapes surrounding the skull and light rays coming out of the top of it. There are two quotes tattooed along with the skull as well that read, “Everything is not enough” and “Nothing is too much to bear”.
Meaning: The tattoo of the words on his back represents the lyrics, “Everything is not enough, and nothing is too much to bear.” which comes from Townes Van Zandt, another one of Frank’s idols.
33. ‘Buddies, Pin, and X’ Tattoo
Tattoo: The left side of his left lower leg has a tattoo of the word, “BUDDIES” on it along with a bird. There is also a tack pin tattooed on his leg and an outline of a map. The number, “222” is also tattooed on his leg and there is a giant X separating the letters, “BDHC” tattooed above the bird. ‘Buddies’ is a record he recorded with Jon Snodgrass, BDxHC should also be read in light of that fact, such as “buddies hardcore” (similar to UK hardcore next to Milion Dead.)
34. Leg Tattoos
Tattoo: There are a lot of tattoos covering the singer’s legs too but he has not revealed any of them yet. There are letters tattooed on his toes as well. There is also a pair of wings tattooed on his right leg near his knee.
