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DANZIG
by Jonathan Williams
Photos
by Evil Jim
From the October 2005 issue of
Prick Magazine.
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Countless metalheads and punks have been
tattooed as a result of Glenn Danzig's many creative
endeavors. Whether it's the Misfits fiend skull (aka The
Crimson Ghost) or the Samhain/Danzig demon skull from his
legendary musical projects, or characters from his X-rated
horror comic company, Verotik, the satanic visions of Danzig
have gotten under the skin of many of his fans. In fact,
Danzig's own tattoos represent some of the manifestations of
his imagination as well.
"They're just all different
phases in my life," he says of the "Wolf's Blood," Misfits and
Samhain ink on his left arm. "When I was getting tattoos, not
everybody had a tattoo and not a lot of people wanted tattoos.
A lot of dorks started getting them so I stopped getting them.
It used to be a symbol of something and now it's... very
mainstream.
"I see a lot of people getting tattooed
and then later on they want to get rid of them," he continues.
"The tattoos I have I'm never going to get rid of. I didn't
get them because I wanted to be on MTV or some ink show or
something. I did it because it's a part of me."
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Danzig
live. |
Danzig's
tattoos. |
Photo courtesy of
Danzig. | |
But
that's not the only reason Danzig hasn't committed to getting
more tattoos. He's remained friends with Rick Spellman, the
artist who did all of his ink, and has seen the gruesome
lengths that people have gone to have unwanted tattoos
removed.
"[Spellman] used to have a tattoo chair in
his dad's old parlor," he recalls. "One showcase they had just
cut skin [off] people who wanted their tattoos off. They were
so dark and big that they had to actually cut down to two
layers of skin and peel the skin off. They had all the dried
skin in this showcase of all these tattoos of people who had
decided to get their tattoos off. It was pretty cool."
Although this all sounds like a scene from one of
Danzig's gore-filled comics or the lyrics from a song like
"SkinCarver" off last year's Circle of Snakes album, he
says these are the real life consequences of getting tattoos
for the wrong reasons.
"This is just stuff I used to
see when I would to go into tattoo parlors," he says. "It
makes you ask, 'Do I really want this?' Especially if
somebody's getting a really, really big piece. If you got some
big elaborate backpiece and then decided you wanted it off,
you're out of your mind because it's going to cost you so much
money to get it taken off you might as well just leave it."
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Glenn Danzig with
PRICK Music Editor Jonathan Williams. |
Jonathan Williams with
Tommy Victor (guitar) of
Prong. | |
Even
though Danzig hasn't gone under the needle in a while, he
obviously hasn't had any creative blocks when it comes to his
own demonic output. He toured earlier this year to support
Circle of Snakes – an album featuring Tommy Victor of
Prong on guitar, former Nothingface and Skrape bassist Jerry
Montano and current Jerry Cantrell drummer Bevan Davies – that
returned to the bluesy dark metal Danzig became known for in
the early '90s. He recently released Il Demonio Nera, a
DVD of videos from the Danzig 4 and Danzig 5:
Blackacidevil albums, and a live (and very raw) Samhain
DVD from the band’s first L.A. performance in 1984 will be
available Oct. 25.
He has also completed Black Aria
II, a cinematic classical work based on the mythology of
Lilith, and will be releasing it in the next few months. Like
Rob Zombie, Danzig is delving into movies based on some of his
Verotik characters. A porno version of Edward Lee's corpse
hooker adventure Grub Girl recently finished filming
and Danzig is writing and directing a film version of
Gerouge, a "live action, turn-of-the-century New
Orleans voodoo" story.
Danzig is also currently
headlining the Blackest of the Black tour with Montano on
bass, Type O Negative's Johnny Kelly on drums and Deconstruct
guitarist Joe Fraulob. And aside from opening acts The Agony
Scene, Mortiis, Himsa, Behemoth, and Chimaira, former Misfits
guitarist Doyle is joining Danzig for a short set of Misfits
songs each night.
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Jerry Montano
(bass). |
Jerry Montano with
PRICK. |
Doyle (guitar).
Photo by Ron
Logan. | |
"He'd
left the Misfits and he was talking about how he wasn't happy
with all that and eventually we started talking and it all
just came about," says Danzig of the shows he did with Doyle
earlier this year. "He didn't want to stop performing, he just
didn't want to perform with the karaoke thing that was going
out.
"This time around he's going to be on the whole
tour," he continues. "If it's anything like the handful of
shows we did before, the kids are going to go crazy. First you
get the full Danzig set, but then when Doyle comes out and we
do those old songs, it's pretty pure. It's pretty much what it
was."
With each Danzig tour, there are rumors that it
might be his last. And while making a movie will obviously be
somewhat of a distraction from his music career, one can only
imagine that this Danzig/Doyle reunion will likely lead to
more collaborations in the future. Maybe he'll even consider
getting another tattoo to document it.
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Danzig
live. |
Samhain DVD
cover. | |
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