Do you have any Alice-related tattoos?

Anything that’s got to do with a name, like girls’ names or a band name, I’ve always looked at that as an instant curse. [Laughs.] You’re gonna break up or something and then you’re stuck, so I’ve kind of always shied away from doing anything kind of personal. I do have a frog skeleton on my left thigh that is kind of inspired by a piece of art that Alice used by an artist named Jesse Hickman, out of Seattle. So I do have a piece of art related to Alice, but nothing completely direct or blatant.

When was the last time you got tattooed?

The last tattoo I got was the frog skeleton, actually, so it’s been a long time since I [got] a tattoo. I’ve kind of been debating on whether to just live with what I have, which is pretty much what I’ve done. In the case of tattoos I would always give anybody the same advice: If you’re not absolutely sure then just don’t do it, ’cause you can always get it later. Part of it is trying to decide. I’ve often thought about sleeving both arms or at least sleeving one and maybe partially another, but I haven’t quite gotten to that yet. But I’ve been thinking about it—actually for a good couple of years. So maybe throughout the travels of the tour on this record we’ll see some more ink on Mr. Cantrell.

Are there any Alice tattoos you’ve seen that really stand out to you?

Plenty. I think the most popular one I’ve seen repeatedly is the artwork that Layne came up with, which is the Alice tribal sun. And that’s always cool to me because it’s something Layne designed and he was becoming a really great artist himself. He was great at self-portraits and he was a really creative guy. That’s kind of an iconic piece of the Alice history and it’s something he created. The other one, which I never really know how to feel about, is I’ve had people occasionally ask me to sign their arm so they can get it tattooed. I’m like, “Ah, don’t do that, dude. You don’t want my name on your arm.” I dig the support and I appreciate it and all that, but maybe get some sort of piece of art instead of an autograph. But it’s their body and it’s totally cool. I’ve done it a couple of times. Most of the time I actually decline. If they say they’re gonna get it tattooed I generally have a little talk with them and try to talk them out of doing that. But occasionally you’ll sign somebody and they’ll show back up at the next show and they’ve got a tattoo of it, so I’ve seen the autograph thing a couple of times too.

In the hypothetical realm, is there anybody you’re a big enough fan of to do that?

I wouldn’t put somebody’s name on my body. Maybe if I had a kid or something, maybe somebody that was that dear to me and that part of me. I guess maybe that might be a consideration. But I would probably do some piece of art that represented them. If you wanna talk about some really cool and fucking beautiful artwork that’s done in a kind of homage thing, I’ve seen some great portrait art. That’s cool because that’s a piece of art, and I really admire any artist who can bring a face to life. I’ve seen a couple of Layne that were really cool and seen some really great ones of Dime [Dimebag Darrell] and a couple of Ace Frehley that were fucking killer—and of course family members and stuff like that.