Pantera: The Story of Philip Anselmo’s X-Rated, Ex-Wife Tattoo
Tattoo legend Paul Booth is gifting metalheads with more stories of inking iconic musicians. Pantera’s Philip Anselmo is next on Booth’s list, as the Last Rites artist recalls tattooing an X-rated portrait of Anselmo and his ex-wife.
You may have never seen the tattoo, since it resides on the inside of Anselmo’s right arm. As Booth describes in the video above, the Pantera vocalist wanted a portrait of himself as a demon with an image of his first wife riding an extended tongue. Naturally, Paul Booth was immediately on board to commit the explicit piece to Anselmo’s skin.
Anselmo’s tattoo was one of the first extended, demonic tongues of Booth’s career. The artist remembers perfecting Phil’s slithering mouth muscle, paying special attention to the tiny bumps lining his tongue’s surface.
“Phil was rock solid,” Booth says of the vocalist’s tolerance for pain. “He’s like Kerry [King]; he sat. He didn’t ballbaby at all. There’s always moments of, ‘I’ve had enough now.’ It gets annoying, you know? After hours and hours of it, you kind of get impatient. It was a good session. I don’t remember any problems at all.”
Watch Paul Booth tell the story of Anselmo’s XXX tattoo above. To get a glimpse of Booth’s Last Rites studio, click here.
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