Maja Ivarsson: The Sounds

The queen of air kicks, a professional crowd surfer, and a natural charmer, blond bombshell Maja Ivarsson has stage presence (and tattoos) in spades. “I never work out,” says Ivarsson. “I think doing 200 shows per year, and all the energy I have onstage, I guess that’s an hour workout every night. But I still smoke cigarettes and drink beer while I do it.” Now that’s rock—and, believe it or not, Ivarsson and the Sounds have been going 13 years strong. “Fans come up and show [me] pictures from eight years ago and I think, Oh, God, I look so different—but at the same time, I’m still wearing the same jacket,” she says.

And when the Swede whips off that jacket onstage, we are treated to some great ink. “My favorite tattoo must be the Modesty Blaise I have on my forearm,” she says. “I did it in Los Angeles at Shamrock Tattoo on my birthday when I turned 24. I’ve always been a big fan of that comic book figure. She’s not really well-known here in America.”

As for future tattoos, Ivarsson is thinking about inking a female music icon on her own body. “I was talking to Kat Von D … she came to one of our shows in Santa Barbara,” Ivarsson says. “We were talking about maybe doing a tattoo sometime when I get back to L.A. I found this really good picture of Stevie Nicks, and I think she’s so rad and so cool, and you know how good Kat is at portraits. So we were just talking about that and she wants to do it, so maybe I will have that done sometime in the near future.” Two more beautiful women wrapped up on one.