“I’m a programmer,” says Exciteableboy, he of the above knuckle tattoos, “it’s what I am.” Oh yeah? Well, I LOVE PIES, but you don’t see me bragging about it.

…Oh, who am I kidding? I brag about it all the time. Go forth, good sir.

Actually, let’s open it up to the floor: Favorite knuckle tattoos of all time, whether you’ve actually seen them or just had wonderful dreams about them. Let’s hear ‘em in the comments.

On a scale of one to 10, this tattoo of the AutoCAD dimensioning toolbar is one hell of a nerdy (and awesome) tattoo. “As you can tell,” says the wearer, “I really love drafting.” We could tell.

Hey, that’s a pretty good self-portrait, HEHNGHH? Oh wait, never mind, Tomasz fills us in:

The Shrike is designed by Artur Szolc, on the basis of excerpts from the book Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. It’s not based on any other drawings of the creature, and it’s supposed to be as accurate as possible. The head is only the first part of the tattoo. The upper body of the Shrike will cover my whole arm, and Shrike’s four arms will encircle my arm and go all the way up to the shoulder and down the elbow. Its blades shall seem to pierce the skin. Possibly, a thorn-tree background will be added as well to complete a half-sleeve.

Thanks, Tomasz! A closer shot of the tattoo, after the jump.

New rule: When you get tattoos of five circles on your back, the radius of each corresponding to the first five terms in the Fibonacci sequence, and you then place a corresponding number of pomegranate seeds inside each circle, you get to be on ModBlog. (Also, I think Rachel’s position is distorting the circles a bit, because those suckers are indeed quite straight. Err, round. You know what I mean.)

(Tattoos by Dave at Eye of the Lotus in Edmonton, Alberta.)

It may appear that good old Johnny Storm is staring longingly at the BMEzine.com watermark, or perhaps up into the sky, at the Skrulls, with disgust. But no, he just takes every opportunity he gets to show off that finely honed, supple buttocks. Yes, we get it. You’re very manly. Now stop licking your finger, poking it into one of your pecs and saying, “Oooh, caliente!” You’re not impressing anyone, Johnny.

You know the worst part? That unicorn only had one week until retirement.

*pounds fist on desk, weeps into hands*

Aileen checks in:

I had recently shaved the side of my head short, but Ellie (Maher, of Dead Rockstar in Bismarck, North Dakota) said, Hey! Let’s shave it all the way down and tattoo it. So I said, Sure, let’s do Pac-Man. Well, we ended up with Ms. Pac-Man — much more cute in my opinion! Head tattoos make me a bad-ass, right? Even if they are kinda geeky …

It’s almost impossible to post work coming out the Swastika Freakshop without some readers getting up in arms about their use of swastika iconography, an argument that typically devolves into one side claiming that the symbol is offensive and should be abolished, with the other naming historical precedents of the swastika being used as a sign of peace, and that this current usage is indeed a means of reclaiming a valuable piece of history from the tyranny of the Nazis.

Truthfully, both sides have valid points. To some, regardless of the swastika’s pre-WWII history, it has been forever tarnished by its abuse at the hands of the Nazis, and it may be unrealistic to expect people to study and accept an image that, to them, has only ever symbolized a very particular and ugly moment in human history. At the same time, reclamation of the swastika is a valid and noble project, and one that, should it be successful, would have only positive results. Sometimes, though, it seems that some on the reclamation side are maybe not as patient as they should be with those people who oppose the swastika’s use, which is understandable to an extent; when one spends so much time working toward a specific goal, to have one’s work disparaged just by dint of its existence can be extremely demoralizing. But patience, in this instance, may be the difference between educating someone and turning them off for good.

We’re not going to reach any verdicts here today, but if there’s one thing we can all agree on, I think it’s that Marc’s Super Mario-themed tattoo on Rauschkind fucking rules. Two more shots, after the jump.

Wait, wait, I know this one! Umm … Shredder? No? Shit. C3PO? Really? Damn it. I could’ve sworn … oh, oh, Robocop! It’s Robocop! Ah, hell, I’m no good at charades.