Real bikers were into tattoos long before they became fashionable.

We did tattoos before they were everywhere. For a few days.

Younger people may be surprised to learn that there was a time not that long ago when tattoos were looked down upon as something only sailors and lowlifes got into. I’m really not sure how that outlook changed. I was going to suggest (facetiously) that the OFMC had something to do with it but in reality we were probably just riding on the cusp of a wave that was building before we got on it.

Back in 1994 when the OFMC was preparing for our annual summer ride one of us had an idea. Let’s all get tattoos. But just the temporary kind, the kind that you wet your skin and stick this thing on and the image transfers. Then they wash off in a week or so, maybe longer if you’re careful with it.

The idea of course was for us to sort of masquerade as real hard-core bikers. That was always an ongoing joke between us, knowing full well we were nothing of the sort. But we enjoyed referring to ourselves as “stud bikers.” So what stud biker is complete without tattoos?

At the time the popular idea of tattoos was just starting to change. If you went to the People’s Fair, a long-time Denver event, you were seeing more and more booths where you could look through different images and then pick one to have for yourself. “Proper” society was still leery of actual tattoos but temporary tattoos were definitely in vogue. So Bill and John and I each got a temporary tattoo.

Then we headed out on our one-week ride looking forward to seeing the reaction our skin art would elicit.

And that response was non-existent. It didn’t help that Bill’s washed off quickly, and that John had his put on in a spot where it was usually concealed by his clothing. But mine was right out there for the world to see and nobody said one word about it and I never so much as caught a single person looking furtively at it. Yes sir, we were really the stud bikers.

And then the world changed. Now real tattoos are everywhere. And most of these people have never been on a motorcycle in their lives.

Don’t ask me to explain it. I’m just an observer here.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if your tattoos all wash off.