You’ve read our previous posts about Dan Smith’s straight edge book, With the Light of Truth, but you’ve never seen this video.

If you’re not familiar with the book, read more about it here and buy yourself a copy of it here.

I’m not currently, have not ever been, and unlikely ever will be straight edge. Now that I’ve gotten that little disclaimer out of the way, I want to say I think it’s amazing how strong a role tattoos play in the expression of this… what, “lifestyle choice”? Help me out with the P.C. term here, guys. (Plus, every straight edge tattoo I see reminds me of this Hopeless Nation song.)

On top of all of that, this straight edge tattoo is from Kid Kros. The man has a background in graffiti & loves lettering, making him an absolutely ideal tattooer to get a piece like this from. Is it weird that I’m jealous?

Tattoo by Kid Kros at El Magico in Split, Croatia

While I’m not straight egde, I’m very excited to get my hands on a copy of With the Light of Truth. For those of you who are unsure what exactly this book is, here’s the description from the website:

A collection of Straight Edge related tattoos and art and profiles of some of the best tattoo artists in the world.

The book is now available for $50, while I know that’s a lot money – you can clearly see it’s done right. If you need more convincing, check out this list of artists involved in the book:

DJ ROSE, GREZ, ADRIAN MONAHAN, SHANE B, MATT BAGWELL, DEAN PARKIN, CHAD SONER, DAN SMITH, RANDY HALL, SIMON ERL, STEVE BYRNE, KEVIN BYERS, CHRIS STUART, MANEKO, RON FOX, DAVE QUIGGLE, FRANK CARTER, TERRY JACKS, MARK JACKSON, SOAP, MIKE TOMMYROT, PHILLIP SZLOSEK, MITCH LOVE, STEVIE EDGE, ERICH FOSTER, BEAU BRADY, JASON FRANK, JIM SYLVIA, JAVIER RODRIGUEZ, PATRICK HANEY, ERIC MICHAEL SCHAUFFELE, NICO ACOSTA, AXEL RIO, IAN WHITE, JESSE GABRIEL, JASON ANTHONY, PAUL NYCZ, JUSTIN JARRELL, MATT KERLEY, JOHN RAFTERY, SANTU ALTAMIRANO, JOHN DEWEESE, NATE CLICK, DUSTY NEAL, OLLIE, LARS LUNDQUIST, KC LANGE, MARINA INOUE, RODRIGO BOTERO, BRAD STEVENS, ALEX FRANKLIN, ANNIE WALKER, ADAM SAGE, GASTON FUNES, NICK LUIT, MIKE LUSSIER, CHAZ OTTO

Julene and I have been talking about have a SXE Day, but we haven’t had a ton of submissions. Maybe this will get the ball rolling?

As always, you can submit your tattoos to TattooSnob@gmail.com. Don’t forget to include the artist, shop name, and location!

Tattoo by Dan Smith at High Voltage Tattoo in Los Angeles, CA

I’m not straight edge, but I definitely have respect for people that are. Unfortunately most people celebrate their commitment with some truly hideous ink. Whomever this is tattooed on didn’t go that route, and instead had Mark Stewart lay these matching X’s down. By the way, if you haven’t read the Tattoo Snob interview with Mark Stewart, check that out here.