Tattoos songs can be found even in the world of country/bluegrass music. John Cowan was best-known in the 80s as the lead singer and bass player for the New Grass Revival, alongside other noted musicians such as Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and Pat Flynn. After NGR broke up in the early 90s, Cowan formed his own band, the John Cowan band, and their debut album was called "New Tattoo." The title was derived from the track "Carla's Got A New Tattoo."
Hey, Carla's got a cool tattoo
Lord I'd like to have one too
One that's hidden just out of view
A rose or lightning bolt will do
Hey, Carla's got a cool tattoo
Lord I'd like to have one too
A little Gaelic symbol
maybe something like a Chinese gong
A few notes of music
if you wanted you could sing along
Carla's got a cool tattoo
A bramble vine that weaves entwined, and twines
and weaves up under my sleeve
A token will be the purest part of me
full of courage and serenity
And nobody will ever see
but a lover that gets close to me
Carla's got a cool tattoo
Amy's got her eyebrow pierced
She did it like she did her ear
Well she just took out a needle and thread
And she poked a little hole in her head
It's still kinda puffy and red
but I like the way it looks she said
Now with a little golden chain she can connect her eyebrow
to her ear
A statement so simple and pure but will last for years
Amy's got her eyebrow pierced
Carla's got a cool tattoo
Cowan's take on the song, as he described it to Country Standard Time, is:
"I think it's written from the standpoint that's just literally observing of - I'm a person that has a tattoo, and yes, it was painful to get - it's not something that I even considered, but I had an experience in my life where someone I was very close to, he and his eight-year-old son were killed by a drunk driver, and I had a tattoo to commemorate that. I think a lot of people that do have tattoos - it's surely, (with) most people, going through the process, a sense of 'getting there' that's usually to mark some kind of sentinel or significant event in their lives. It's spoken from pretty much the point of view of the person who has one as well. I actually viewed it as kind of a 'light' song...it's kind of funny, really."
You can see and hear Cowan and his band perform the song in the video below:
