Why, oh why would someone get a toe tattoo or a tattoo on all their toes? It seems I’m getting asked that a bit since my latest tattoo was lovingly placed upon my skin. This is the story of how my toes became tattooed.
A friend of my family is a tattoo artist, and we have asked him to come over on Friday’s to do tattoo’s. I get tattooed, the neighbors get tattooed, I’ve had strangers over to get tattooed. Friday night is tattoo night around here, and it can turn into a big party that lasts until late in the night. However there hasn’t been any toe tattoo work being performed until now.
The latest addition to my skin art is a tattoo across each of my toes. Why would I do this? There’s actually a story behind these toes and the art work on them.
The Dream That Started It
It all started with a dream I had one night. A regular run-of-the-mill dream, not a lucid dream.
I dreamt I was looking at another guys arm and admiring the artwork he had on it. It covered the entire length of his arm, but was still quite airy and vacant in many places.
As I looked as this guys arm, I realized that he had only three major sections to his entire sleeve. On the shoulder, a piece of toast that looked particularly angry, and running with stick legs and arms waving. Near his elbow, another rendition of the same piece of toast. Near his hand, a third one. Behind the toast were simply shaded areas that extended down the entire length of his arm. The focal point of the tattoo seemed to be three pieces of angry toast.
The Night I Tattooed My Toes
If you have had the pleasure of receiving a tattoo, you might have found them to be addictive. Of course this will vary from person to person, but I am quite addicted to getting them. I enjoy the feeling and the rush of adrenaline that comes from having your skin pierced thousands of times in a short amount of time. That’s a post for another day perhaps though, on with the toe tattoos.
I had harassed my girlfriend for weeks about this dream by telling her I was going to get some images of angry toast somewhere on my body. She simply looked at me, every time, and lovingly said “You’re a f**king idiot”, and meant it.
I smiled at her and said “I know my love, but it’s angry toast!”.
She called me an idiot again and we went on with our day. This continued for a few weeks, and then one night, something happened.
I was simply itching to get some work done a few ‘tattoo nights’ ago, but I didn’t want to get my arms done again. I’ve been working on them for a while now and I wanted a different feeling, and something completely unique. I pondered it a bit.
I started talking with Jeff, our artist, about the dream I had and asked him to draw a sketch of the angry toast I saw in my dreams. After a few iterations, he finally got it right. It looked like the toast of my dreams. 
I showed it to my girlfriend.
“How I love that man of mine…you’re a f**king idiot.” was all I got.
I tried my best to think of someplace I could put a piece of angry toast, and couldn’t think of any. I didn’t want a stand-alone piece of angry toast somewhere, I wanted it integrated in with the other work I have done already. But there wasn’t any place that seemed to work well.
I pondered it some more and began to scan my body, looking for some place I could put this piece of angry toast.
I pondered my feet. On the top of my foot?
No.
I thought about getting smiley faces on my knees, similar to what Ozzy Osbourne has, but more Seventies “have a nice day” style. Perhaps a piece of toast there?
No.
As I wondered where I could put some angry toast on my body, my mind began to play with the words ‘angry toast’. Slowly, I came to the words ‘angry toes’.
Toes….hmm. I could simply swash a tattoo across my toes!
Eureka! That’s it! I’ll put a tattoo across my toes!
After some pen work and few design ideas, we came up with what you see above. You’ll notice my pinky toe lines are not that straight. I’m a big twitcher and hugely ticklish on my feet, so thankfully the artist was understanding enough and dealt with my twitchy feet while laying in some ink across my toes.
We’ve gone over it twice so far. The photo is after the second session, and we’ll probably do one more just for good measure.
I have yet to see another quite like it, and I’m very happy with the way it turned out. It hurt like a son-of-a-bitch the first time, but the second update was much more bearable. Still very painful though. The pinky still gave me some grief too.
And that, my friends, is more than you ever wanted to know about my toes and the tattoo laid upon them.
Update 4/20/2009 – I still enjoy wearing sandals and such. My toe tattoo is still looking sharp, with minor rub areas on the pinky, which were to be expected. The toe is a high-rub area, and that’s going to happen. I’ve been told it looks like the Dos-Equis symbol. I don’t see it.
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Wayne John is a web developer in Southern California that shares his 25+ years of programming and web development experience freely and happily to anyone willing to learn. He also loathes speaking in the third person. If you enjoyed this post, make sure you 
Wow, that’s really a great place for a tattoo. I am into tattoos and tattoo designs for over two years now. And I have seen a lot of designs and tattoos. But I have never until now seen a toe tattoo. Great idea and a great tattoo. Congratulations.
BWAHAHAHAHA! Nice! Really nice! hahahahaha!
Wayne, for some reason I am getting this picture of The Brave Little Toaster gone postal.
I suppose tats on the toes wouldn’t hurt as bad as some “other” places…
In between the toes….that’s all I’m going to say.
Cool site! Thanks for swinging by!
Sweet! Thats a cool place to have one, I’m sure it hurt like hell! Man, probably one of the most tenderest spots to have a tattoo.
Hey, nice site TattooDesigns. Umm…yeah, crawling away from that crap… I don’t think I’ll be doing the other side just yet. If it comes down to balancing the artwork across both legs, then sure, why not at that point?
“It hurt like a son-of-a-bitch” yes I bet it did, I have one kind of like a ring too and I was like “f??? me, why did I ever think of this?”
I wore open toed sandals for about a week and a half. I don’t recall them itching terribly much, in fact I believe it was less than my arms were. My main concern was just keeping them clean…last thing I wanted was an infection on my toes…
Apart from the pain. I bet your toes itched like crazy during the healing process.
Dude, you have no idea. I was crawling away from that.
I tried to man up for this one, but yeah, pain pain pain.
That must have hurt like hell.
Sue – Thanks for swinging by, and yes, I’ll be putting up more of my tattoos. This was just too much fun not to. You should consider getting the faded work updated. Check back often as I’ll soon be profiling my ‘travelling leg’, where I place tattoos I get while on vacations.
I’ve never seen someone with their toes tattooed…it’s very kewllllll. I have a tattoo on my right arm and one on my left back shoulder..both of Tweety. I have to tell you I was in my late 40’s when I got them. My children all thought I had gone mad and was going thru my second childhood. I tried to explain to them that was not the case, it was simply that now I could afford a tattoo at this stage in my life. I need the one on my right shoulder re-done, most of the color is gone due to my being in the sun. Would love to see your other artwork.
Ryan – I’m still looking for a spot, you know that! And it will drive Jacq crazy when I do it. I’ll get smacked upside the head and she’ll make it the one thing she points out at parties about me being an idiot. I can’t wait to get it. hahahaha
@Karen – glad you liked that, it’s a running joke in the house, and I don’t think it will dissapear anytime soon. I’m in love with my toes now, I love the uniqueness and the style itself. Love it! Darn near my favorite tattoo on me so far.
I have finally read the entire toe blog and frankly I am in tears. The angry toast things is possibly the funniest thing I have heard in a while.
I have four of them and I think I’m getting a new one next week. All of mine have a special place in my heart and the all mean something to me, but I will agree, it’s completely addictive.
In ending this let me say, that is a nice piece of work!
so when are you gonna get a tattoo of that angry toast? That’s the kind of dream that could plague a fellow until he sees it to fruition.
That’s good.
Sorry, that wasn’t aimed at you at all. It appeared that way because I started a new paragraph. That was simply my retort to anyone that may judge someone on having tattoos, which I’m sure will see this post. I kinda blurred the lines between my reply and what I would tell the world. My mistake and I need to watch that in the future. Thanks for calling that one out.
Yeah, the top will fade a bit too. What you see there is the second layering of ink, and there will most likely be a third in an attempt to ensure the fading doesn’t occur as quickly.
I’ve been wearing flip-flops all week to allow them to heal properly. I may even go another week in flops just to give them more time. The toes heal much differently than the arms do, that’s for sure!
I never said it did make someone a bad person. I’m not sure why you felt the need to tell me that.
Won’t the tattoo on the top of the foot fade too?
@GaryJay – Never knew that! And thanks for tagging you, why you little….
hahaha
@Alex – Lift away! I agree completely. Tattoos, and the reason people get them are very personal. One person will see one and think ‘why’, but there is usually a reason to the madness. For myself, tattoos are a form of pleasure initially, and you get a nice prize to remember the moment by. The designs are just as personal. I have one sleeve dedicated to Pink Floyd that I might share one day. I’m sooo completely into Pink Floyd, and the artwork by Storm Thorgusen that seemed to go so well with the ‘conceptual’ aspects of the music entranced me. Hooked me, and I’ve never been the same since discovering the Pink Floyd.
@Rose – No, it doesn’t go all the way around. There would be no point really. The skin would either not accept the ink and reject it under the foot, or over time it would simply disappear due to the ‘rub’ factor. Same with the hands. There are too many oils produced there to allow the ink to stay in the skin.
Everyone has their own opinion, the only thing to remember is that people with tattoo’s are lawyers, doctors, thugs….all breeds of professions. Having them doesn’t make one a bad person at all. For myself, I’m sleeved because I can get away with doing it. Being a programmer, no one really cares what I look like, as long as I’m presentable. And I can always don a long sleeve and cover myself up if need be. I usually don’t though unless there are clients and customers involved with whatever I’m doing.
The sleeves are recent too…so many pictures you may see of me don’t have the sleeves yet. Naked skin waiting to be needled.
I’m not a fan of tattoos myself. I don’t understand the appeal. It looks like a toe ring. Does it go all around your toe?
I love this post! Tattoos are so intensely personal that hearing about someone’s experience is like a mini-biography, don’t you think? Which makes the topic ideal for a blog post. I’m very tempted to “blog-lift” that idea!
back shortly before and after the 1900’s, the fad for males was to obtain fencing scars—-the thinking primarily being, your not a man til you’ve been properly “cut”. Well here we are 100 years later and what can I say, what goes around, comes around—your not a man til your properly scarred, cept this time around more thought and planning goes into achieving the end result—–and people wonder why GM stopped manufacturing Oldsmobiles?
Ohh, I was surprised to learn you had never been tagged for a Meme Wayne, and you seemed so excited, have tagged ya for another—-enjoy.(see my blog for the details)