The fifth track on side one of The Who Sell Out (1967), Tattoo is fantastic little song by Pete Townshend. Recorded in October 1967, the album then launched in December.

Tattoo went became a mainstay for The Who’s live performances into the mid-1970s, whilst the band ignored pretty much everything else off the album. This was because it remained one of Townshend’s favourites.

It’s a curious, introspective, innocent song we’ve loved for a long time. And now’s the time to celebrate it (even if we’re not getting a bloody tattoo of it).

Welcome to My Life Tattoo

This is a rite of passage song. It’s about a pair of brothers who, as teenagers, do a rebellious thing and decide to get some tattoos.

Result? One angry father who beats his sons. However, the mother actually likes the singer’s tattoo, although disapproves of the other one.

Advancing on from Townshend’s singles such as Substitute, it showed his skillset was improving rapidly. There’s a real introspective quality to it—a youthful sense of innocence and awe at making a bold fashion statement.

Me and my brother were talking to each other,
About what makes a man a man,
Was it brain or brawn, or the month you were born?
We just couldn’t understand.

Our old man didn’t like our appearance,
He said that only women wear long hair.

So me and my brother borrowed money from mother,
We knew what we had to do,
We went downstairs, past the barber and gymnasium,
And got our arms tattooed.

Welcome to my life, tattoo,
I’m a man now, thanks to you,
I expect I’ll regret you,
But the skin graft man won’t get you,
You’ll be there when I die.

One of the things we love about The Who was the constant, revolving nature of the vocals. Roger Daltrey is the band’s lead singer, but bassist John Entwistle and Townshend provide ongoing backing vocals/harmonies.

And Townshend often takes lead singing duties on many songs. You might not notice, but he sings the lines:

Our old man didn’t like our appearance,
He said that only women wear long hair.

The backing harmonies across the track are as fantabulous as you’d expect from the band. On other tracks like A Quick One, While He’s Away (1967) or So Sad About Us (1966) you can hear them working very well indeed together.

But there’s a little hint of Townshend’s great sense of humour at the close of the thing, with this assortment of words here.

Now I’m older, I’m tattooed all over,
My wife is tattooed, too,
A-rooty-doot-toot, rooty-tooty-toot-toot,
Rooty-tootle-tootle tattoo, too.

To you…

On the Sell Out concept album, the song then leads into a Radio London blurb about going to the church of your choice.

It’s a great song. A classic, on what we think is the band’s best album.

At the time, Townshend was aware his guitar playing wasn’t on the level of peers such as Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix (basically, anyone called Jimmy in the 1960s). In fact, he idolised the latter.

To get around his shortcomings, he used his creativity and intelligence to craft innovative song structures—Tattoo is a classic example of that approach. With its swoon worthy vocal harmonies and catchy electric guitar riffs, you can’t help but marvel at it.

Townshend was pelting these songs out at one hell of a rate in the ’60s, with the landmark Tommy (1968) just around the corner for The Who.

But as for Tattoo, it wasn’t released as a single. I Can See For Miles was the only song off Sell Out that was, although it didn’t chart well (infuriating Townshend in the process).

Tattoo also follows on from track four, Odorono, on Sell Out. Also a beautiful, introspective song and indicating why we like this album as much as we do. ‘Cos it’s proper belting, matey.

Notable Live Performances of Tattoo

It’s very difficult to find bootlegs of The Who Sell Out material being played live.

The Who must have toured it, but at the time Townshend was aware the band needed a mega hit. Otherwise The Who was dead. Tommy saved the day in 1968, but at the cost of Sell Out’s material.

All of which was dropped off the band’s live set…

Except for Tattoo! As it remained one of Townshend’s favourites, he fitted it into the set at the band’s live peak. Such as Live at Leeds above and here at London Colosseum in 1969. The band’s set was expansive, often weaving various songs in and out of each other (as seen here with Fortune Teller before the ink song).

Performances stuck around into the ’70s, too, with this 1974 show at Charlton in the UK. This was at a point when Townshend was wining his duties with the band down a bit and focussing on various other projects.

But they were still an excellent live band, even if drummer Keith Moon’s drunken/drug fuelled antics made him increasingly unreliable.

From scouring across YouTube, it’s clear The Who still occasionally included Tattoo in their live sets. As, yes, the band is still touring! We found an acoustic version from 2020 someone uploaded online.

The Who have a bunch of shows later this month across Europe.

Like The Rolling Stones, Townshend and Daltrey and now nearly 80. We don’t have any issue with them still touring, we think it’s a great thing. Why not? Why should rock music just be about young bands?

Townshend is still highly creative, having written his debut novel recently. Plus, he released his first solo single in a while and still produces new Who albums.

But this little gem, lasting just under three minutes, is one of his finest works.