Lights Poxleitner-Bokan popularly known as Lights, is a Canadian Songwriter, Singer, Author, and an Illustrator. She is well known for her gold-certified albums The Listening and Siberia and her famous singles like “Drive My Soul”, “February Air”, “Toes”, and “Up We Go”. She released her fourth studio album, Skin & Earth, along with the graphic novel of the same name in the year 2017. She was awarded in the year 2009 for the New Artist of the Year award. Lights is known to have spent her childhood across the world and stayed at various cities including the Philippines, Jamaica, Ontario, and British Columbia. She legally changed her name to LIGHTS when she moved to Toronto at the age of 18.
1. ‘Butterfly’ Tattoo
Tattoo: LIGHTS has a tattoo of a butterfly inked in an outline frame at the center of her chest.
Meaning: Butterflies are an important part of LIGHTS’ Skin&Earth comic book series. Butterfly tattoo represents her helper (The Butterfly) in the movie who supports En (LIGHTS character) through the woods to an important discovery.
2. ‘Symbols’ Tattoo
Tattoo: LIGHTS has a tattoo featuring three different logos on her upper left arm.
Meaning: The tattoos have been inked in the sequence matching the characters and the storyline of her movie. The tattoo represents the symbols which mysterious goddess Mitsuki had on her arm and she marks En with them too.
“She marked my arm with three symbols: a moon, a soul, and a sun, to remind me of the true order of life. We are born, we live, then we die and give back, skin and earth once again as one.”
3. ‘Gas Can’ Tattoo
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Tattoo: LIGHTS has a red-colored can inked on her right forearm.
Meaning: The red gas can inked on her forearm is inspired by the “We Were Here” music video and issue #4 of the Skin&Earth comic book. ‘Enaia Jin’, the character played by LIGHTS in the series, carries around a gas can out of a gas station convenience store and ultimately use it to light a truck on fire.
4. ‘Logo’ Tattoo
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Tattoo: LIGHTS has a logo inked on the back of her left wrist.
Meaning: The LOGO represents the logo of her album and comic book “Skin & Earth” She revealed the Skin & Earth album cycle in April 2017 with a teaser photoshoot showing the new bright red hair color along with her logo tattoo.
5. ‘Awake and Dreaming’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has a tattoo on her right hand which says “awake and dreaming” done in cursive letters.
Meaning: Lights got it done in April 2016 by artist Derek Lewis.
In a November 2015 tweet, she wrote “Most of my dreaming is done lying awake.”
6. ‘Panther’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has a tattoo on her right forearm of the panther from her Midnight Machines album cover.
Meaning: Lights got the panther tattooed by artist Derek Lewis in April 2016, just before the start of her Midnight Machines tour in support of the acoustic EP.
“I’m ready for the Midnight Machines tour now,” she wrote on Instagram.
7. ‘Logo behind Ear’ Tattoo
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Tattoo: Lights has a tattoo of the logo from her album Little Machines inked right behind her right ear. The album was released on September 23, 2014, and she got a tattoo of the album’s logo to celebrate its release on October 29, 2014.
8. ‘Rocketship’ Tattoo
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Tattoo: In May 2014, as a tribute to her daughter Rocket Wild Bokan, Lights got ink of a retro-style rocketship on her right thigh. It is tattoed right next to the portrait of her husband Beau Bokan.
Meaning: The tattoo shows her love for her daughter. The tattoo has “Player 3” written on the ship to symbolize that Rocket ( her daughter ) is the third member of their family and the number “02-15-2014” represents Rocket’s birthday i.e February 15th, 2014.
9. ‘World of Warcraft’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has a colorful tattoo of ‘World of Warcraft’ surrounded by flowers inked on her upper thigh.
“It’s a portrait of the alliance king from World of Warcraft, King Varian. He’s like my celebrity crush. I also kinda mutated his face to look like my fiancé [Beau Bokan].
10. ‘Writing’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights and her husband Beau Bokan decided to get matching tattoos to celebrate their wedding date of May 12, 2012.
“We got wedding tattoos on like the day of the wedding,” she says.
11. ‘Emoticon’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights shares another common tattoo with her husband Beau Bokan of the emoticon -:”/9 on their ring fingers.
12. ‘Tiger’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has a tiger inked on her upper left arm colored in blue giving a look quite similar to the one found in the World of Warcraft games.
“This is like a Siberian tiger right here, which is also the spectral tiger mount from World of Warcraft, which is a rare mount which I don’t have.”
13. ‘Portrait and Rose’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has a portrait inked on the inner side of her left arm.
Meaning: Lights has a tattoo on the inside of her upper left arm of a Final Fantasy-inspired female character.
“She’s kind of a beastmaster. She looks a bit Final Fantasy-esque. Another sort of female warrior empowerment thing that makes me feel cool and strong.”
14. ‘The Gun’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights had a comic book version of herself called “Captain Lights” designed by Marvel artist Tomm Coker for a series of webisodes. The laser gun which she has tattooed on her hip comes from these comics.
15. ‘German Writing’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Across her both forearms, Lights has a tattoo of lyrics translated into German. It says “Jetzt und immer die Segen von der Vater und bleibst Unschuldig bis Er kommt” which to the most accurate means “Now and always have the blessing of the father and remain blameless until the end”.
16. ‘Sword’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has a sword inked on her forearm.
“one of the most beautiful weapons” and says “always makes me feel like I’m on the ready with a weapon.”
Meaning: During a tuberculosis shot in her childhood she was left with a permanent mark, so to cover that she decided to get this tattoo such that the jewel of the sword covers her mark. She got it inked from Derek Lewis at Hartless Design in Toronto.
She explains “It scarred me for life. And I had this, it looked like a bullet wound on my forearm since I was five. And [in 2009] I got this tattoo covering it which is a sword from a game I play called World of Warcraft. But I specifically placed it so that the jewel would be right over the scar. And the scar tissue healed weird and held the ink funny so that it actually looks like an opal. But it looks really cool and gives that jewel a unique look. So I turn scars into jewels.”
“I’m a warrior in World of Warcraft, so I always have swords. And obviously, I love this whole warrior vibe,” she says.
17. ‘Dragon, Lion, Sheild’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has a huge tattoo on her left forearm as an extension to her previous black heart and banner tattoo.
Meaning: Rather than covering the existing old black ink heart and the banner tattoo on her left forearm, Lights decided to make additions to their surroundings. It is a coat of arms which represents different aspects of her life. To the left of the shield is Jesus’ name in Hebrew and on the right side are the initials ‘EPVP’ which represents her parents’ names Eric Poxleitner and Virginia Poxleitner. Planets, a raygun, and music notes reflect her outer space alter-ego Captain Lights followed by A lion and a griffin on the bottom crushing a dragon.
18. ‘Lion’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has a lion inked on her left elbow.
Meaning: The lion tattoo is dedicated to her song called “Lions”. Her childhood memories also include lions to a large extent. Her mother used to tell her stories of Narnia and she was much adored by it.
“I’ve always thought lions were the epitome of beauty and strength and power,” she says.
My mom used to sit there in bed and read us the Narnia series growing up. And Aslan [the lion character in the books] represented something really great. It’s just kinda grace and power all in one.”
19. ‘Pinup Girl’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has another large tattoo on her back which is of a Wonder Woman seeing pushing off the hand of Giganta from the cover of Wonder Woman 2 volume 3. To the bottom is the banner with the word UNSTOPPABLE written across it.
According to Lights, “it really represents being able to fight big things even though you’re small.”
She explains: “Wonder Woman is kind of my role model. She’s beautiful and she’s pure, and she fights with immense strength but integrity. She fights with justice and honor, and she’s not doing anything in a slimy or destructive way, and she’s doing it with grace and out of respect for everyone. And she’s an ambassador for Themyscira and a real symbol of a powerful woman. I think it’s fantastic. And she can kick ass and still look great doing it, so I feel like she’s a great symbol for us.”
20. ‘Writing on Finger’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has “FOUND IN LOVE” inked on the inside of her index finger.
21. ‘Ankle’ Tattoo
Tattoo: On her right ankle Lights has a hearthstone from World of Warcraft.
When asked about the inks’ relevance she said, “It’s a World of Warcraft item that—every time you use it—takes you home no matter where you are.
22. ‘Sparrow’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has two sparrows inked on her waistline.
Meaning: Lights’ is fond of getting sparrows and thus she got her first tattoo of two sparrows inked on her waistline a symbol of moving away from home.
“I had just moved away from home and I was 18. I was living in Vancouver at the time and I moved to Toronto, so it’s a big move, it’s like L.A. to New York. I was kind facing the world on my own for the first time and my parents probably would have never let me get a tattoo but I moved out, like ‘I’m a free bird.’ So I got [on my hips] — it’s super cliché, but I got two sparrows. From this hole in the wall place and I was underage. The guy wasn’t that great. But it was exciting because it was my first tattoo.”
23. ‘Writing on side’ Tattoo
Tattoo: On her left ribcage are the words “in this fearsome pilgrimage unearth a crusader’s heart” inked.
Meaning: This phrase is her self formed quote. Additionally, Lights had decided to get it as a lyric of her songs but could not do so. Ultimately she got the phrase inked on her body.
“[It] was something that was just drifting through my head for a few days. I was going to use it as a lyric but couldn’t make it work anywhere, but it really spoke to me in the time I was in. One day we had to cancel a show in Denver because the roads were closed due to blizzards and we ended up in a small town called Fort Collins. We were all in terrible moods so I escaped to a tattoo shop we passed on the way in and got it done.”
24. ‘Banner and Heart’ Tattoo
Tattoo: Lights has a banner which reads reading “unto him” and a heart inked on her left wrist which has now been surrounded by a coat of arms.
