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Our Favorite Tattoos From The Elm Street Music & Tattoo Festival.

Yes, the Elm Street Music & Tattoo Festival was a great place to see plenty of music and get some tattoos from artists you may otherwise never see.

But it was also fantastic for another thing — art appreciation.

Over the course of the five-day event, hundreds upon hundreds of inked-up people flooded Deep Ellum. And, with a keen eye and a kind request, you could get just about anyone to show you a bad ass tattoo.

So we decided to do just that and ask people about their tattoos this weekend. Here are some of our favorites finds.

Kendall and Megan.
No, this couple wasn't sporting the all-out head-to-toe tattoo coverage that a lot of other people were, but the ink they did have was tasteful and quirky. Kendall's colorful tiger shark is based off The Life Aquatic.

Megan, meanwhile, sported a phonograph on her right shoulder: “I've always felt like an old soul,” she said. “A phonograph just made sense.”

She also had a fresh 13 on her forearm, surrounded by flowers.

Gia.
In lieu of intricate continuous pieces, Gia's body was a collage of smaller, eclectic pieces across her arms and legs. When asked about her favorite tattoos, though, she flipped us the bird. Twice.

But not because she's a jerk. The ink's right there — serving as proof that, despite the obscene gesture, she's still a good ol' Texas girl.

Cory.
An artist who works out of the Death & Glory shop in Lower Greenville, Cory's most proud a vibrant tiger head he spots on his chest. He said the piece took about two and a half hours to complete — although the artist who did it, who was sitting right beside him at their shared Prophet Bar booth, assured us that it was more like four.

Pain has a way of making time fly, I guess.

Shelby.
Shelby was chilling on the patio of Three Links tuning his guitar before he went on at midnight. He's the guitarist of The Chop Tops, a rockabilly outfit out of Santa Cruz, California, and this show came on the last few legs of his band's Southwest tour.

He sported a lot of smaller, standalone tattoos — among his favorites being the scorpion on his left bicep and the guitar on his right shoulder.

Josh.
The bassist of The Chop Tops, Josh is a much softer person than his appearance gives off. Though proud of several of his tattoos, he says the crossed arrows on the side of his head are his favorite, although he's also quite sentimental about the woman riding a motorcycle — his first motorcycle, he tells me — on his bicep. The eye on the crook of his left arm was pretty sick, too.

Beyond these few who liked to talk about their art, there were plenty of others who we saw only in passing. And their wicked ink deserves to be seen, too.

With that in mind, here they are.

Here's looking forward to next year's festivities.