Tattoo Stories with Avicii: The Inspiration Behind His Ink

Award winning Swedish DJ and producer, Avicii (real name Tim Bergling), released his sophomore studio album,Stories, in October 2015. The album is the follow-up to his 2013 debut True, and showcases 14 new songs — including his addictive new single "Broken Arrows," which features the vocals of Zac Brown Band frontman Zac Brown. Other singles on the new record include "For A Better Day," "Waiting For Love," and "Pure Grinding."

Bergling tells iHeartRadio that the process for making Stories took a long time, and that he's relieved and happy that it's finally out for fans to consume. "I think I've been prepared for it to be released for forever," he explains.  

On working with Zac Brown on his song "Broken Arrows," the DJ tells us, "I mean [it was] great. I wanted to work with him for a while, actually. My manager started telling me about him two and a half years ago, and I started kinda listening to his stuff, and I came in through there. Then it was just about finding a songs. Over time, I became a really big fan of Zac and his voice in particular for Country. And I had a lot of other Country songs, but they didn't feel right because they felt like they almost sounded too commercial in a way. 'Broken Arrows' is also still a bit pop-y, but it sounded really real, especially when I got back his first recording, [it] was just so organic. It just worked straight away, and it sounded better actually than I wanted to sound."

** Fun fact: Avicii's favorite Zac Brown Band song is "Chicken Fried."

Since Avicii's album is called Stories, we asked him to tell us some ... stories about his tattoos, that is. The talented producer and DJ spilled the details about the origins and meaning behind his tattoos in our one-on-one interview with him below. 

Avicii waited until his early 20s to get his first tattoo. In fact, Tim tells us that he's always wanted one, but he never really knew what he would get. He says, "I never knew what to get before."

On his first tattoo: a Banksy design on his right forearm

"This is from a Banksy. It was the first tattoo I did, and I kinda wanted to mix everything. I wanted to do everything, I think, the first time. So I wanted to do a Banksy. I wanted to do so many things. This [his Banksy tattoo] was more planned. I sat down with the tattoo artist, Jun Cha, and we spent more time actually laying out what to do. I was only going to do this when I was completely sure this was the only thing I was going to do."

On the sleeve on this left arm

Avicii says that he got his Banksy tattoo, originally with the intention that it was going to be his only tattoo. However, after meeting his LA-based tattoo artist Jun Cha, who is known for his skilled, intricate black and grey artistry, he went back six months later for a long session on his left arm, which turned into a sleeve. Tim tells us that was much more painful than his Banksy. "When I got this one [Banksy tattoo], I was so sure that this was not going to hurt at all."

The sleeve of tattoos on Tim's left arm took two sittings. The producer/DJ tells us that the first sitting lasted around 12 hours, while the second was about 18 hours — which is a long time to be sitting down and sitting still. But Tim says that it wasn't hard for him to sit there, as he had his friends with him to talk to during the sessions (with a few small breaks in between). However he also explains how laser-focused Jun Cha was the entire session. "He was insane, he was so focused. For me it wasn't hard. What was cool was he managed to stay focused for 12 and 18 hours like this."

On the Gorilla & three women wrapped in bandages located on the top of his left arm 

The gorilla on the top of his arm, as well as the three women who are each covering their eyes, ears, and mouth below come from the "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" monkeys he's known from childhood.

"Jun Cha, he had an idea, already. We [had] been talking it a little bit over, before I came there, and I sent some pictures back and forth, and I knew I wanted to do a take on [Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil], because I've always kinda [liked] the three monkeys since I was little, and I wanted to do something. I thought of doing something with that, but then just doing the three monkeys felt too easy. I wanted to do a take on that, but didn't know what to do. And then he came up with this. He found this, with the three women instead. So he found that, and put that together with the gorilla. He [designed] everything actually. But it was a lot of back and forth before I decided."

On his Greek Myth inspired tattoo on his top left forearm 

On his left forearm, Avicii has a very detailed tattoo of a sculpture of an elder man with a long white beard inspired inspired by a Greek myth. This, of course, was also done by Jun Cha.

Avicii explains, "Jun Cha does a lot of these sculpture tattoos, so I knew I wanted something like that. And then he brought up a bunch of different alternatives, and we started talking about the back stories, and everything. This one was the one that I thought looked the best, and fit in. He already planned [it] before I got there. So he knew what I liked and what I wanted. So, it wasn't much of a back and forth."

On plans for future tattoos

"I want to finish this [left sleeve] I think, and I want to keep going here. I haven't really decided. I'm going to see Jun Cha again soon, and see what he thinks. I got some ideas. I like having the kinda weird evil things, or have an excuse to have weird evil things, because I already started doing that here [on his left arm]. So I think I want to keep going and do some really graphically gripping stuff. Something could be so moving, just graphically. So I think I want to keep doing that here [on his left arm], and maybe do something a little bit nicer [more Banksy-esque] here [on his right arm]."

Photos: Rachel Kaplan