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Jack Mercer tattoo analysis and headcanons

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this was supposed to be an ask but got way too long so it's headcanons now!!! enjoy babeses!!! also disclaimer I DO NOT know much about tattoos. As always I try my best to do research but PLEASE take what I say with a grain of salt and feel free to leave feedback if I get something wrong but I beg of thee milord to be nice I have double cancer placements in my birth chart and I am sensitive :')

OH HELL YES HELL YES!!!!!! I know you didn’t ask but first and foremost, I FIRMLY believe that Jack (and his band) sound a LOT like Stone Sour’s earlier work (from what I’ve heard so far I found them while looking for a voice claim lol. Also if anyone has any bands that they think would work as voice/music claims for Jack Mercer and his band hit me UPPPPP!!!!) Specifically the song come what(ever) may, it gives me hella Jack vibes.

Okay, I’ll drop the updated (and color coded!!) tattoo tour, then go into detail with headcanons for each one, plus other tats I think he’d get at the end.

(disclaimer: there are so many layers in the mdp file I made the og tour on and I, a silly goose, did not label them. I grouped them by placement, and since have figured out what ALL, yes ALL, of his tats are. I’ve color coded them for additional clarity)

Starting off at the top with his chest, we have the japanese kanji for “wa”

I think this is really REALLY telling about his personality

Also I think it’s fucking adorable that he got it on the opposite side of his chest from where his heart is

Like your heart symbolizes desire and and love and emotional intuition and stuff

So getting a kanji on the opposite side that means peace and unity and harmony reads to me like he was almost balancing it out in a way??

Like your heart is on the inside for yourself, and wa is on the outside and is a representation of connections with other people and your community and humanity at large yk

Just my take but that one definitely reads as something that’s very deeply meaningful to him and a HUGE part of his life philosophy

Next up, the bigass crosses on his shoulders

You can see it better in other scenes than here but they’re mirrored/matching images both in design and placement

I feel like these are mostly for the aesthetic

Like when he was a kid and he would picture “cool rockstar with tattoos” it was always two big gothic crosses on the shoulders and a tattoo of the band’s name or logo and then some other stuff on the arms

It’s one of those things where no matter how much music he writes and how many shows he does with his band, when he catches a glimpse of those particular tattoos by accident THAT’S always what makes him feel like hell YEAH I’m a rockstar!!!!!

Inside of his wrists: previously unidentified scale-like lettering (now identified as his initials, J M)

Okay, it seems to be a stylized sans serif font of J on his right wrist and M on his left (looking at him we see J on OUR left and M on OUR right. Probably obvious but as a dyslexic bitch it’s always beneficial for me to be very clear about left/right orientation like that)

Here’s where it gets really cute to me

So we read english from left to right. The letters are pointing toward his hands, which means when he holds out his wrists to show them off, they’re oriented for someone ELSE to read (they’d be on the opposite wrist if he wanted them oriented for him to read)

BUT BECAUSE OF THE PLACEMENT OTHER PEOPLE WILL READ IT AS M J. HE GOT SOMETHING ABOUT THE PLACEMENT OR ORIENTATION BACKWARDS/MIXED UP. WHY IS THAT SO FUCKING CUTE.

It’s the type of thing Bobby teases him about but Jack will SO FUCKING double down that he ABSOLUTELY did it on purpose and Bobby just doesn’t get it, man

He’s lowkey a little embarrassed even though he has to admit it’s kind of funny

Will die from multiple gunshot wounds before he admits that it was a mistake (youngest sibling core)

“Spares” on right forearm

On his right forearm is the word “spares” in HUGE lowercase celtic font lettering

This is interesting because it’s very visible and stylized pretty deliberately (we see american traditional and japanese traditional influences in the styles he picks, and a little pinch of gothic influence, this is the only one that seems to have a visible celtic influence)

I am loud and proud about my headcanon for this, which is that “spares” is the name of his band

And that’s how their logo is stylized, all lowercase in a somewhat celtic calligraphy font

I actually found a free font that’s virtually identical for any of my fan artists and Jack bitches out there (paul’s celtic font 1 from dafont, pictured below*)

(disclaimer that I did use the in program text settings to make it bold bc I think that’s the cherry on top, preview of what it looks like normally)

Additionally, I also think it’d be really cute if there are three other guys in his band because he’s subconsciously recreating the formula that “worked” with his family. His magic number is “me + three other dudes” and IT FUCKING WORKS EVERY TIME

Also I get the feeling that the number and lineup of guys in Spares has changed a little over time. Like they’ll lose a member, someone will get swapped out because of creative differences or drugs or burnout or something, one or two other people join temporarily and one ends up sticking around for longer, that sort of thing

But the consistency in Spares IS Jack

He is absolutely the heart and soul of the band

I also firmly believe that he’s wanted a tattoo of his band’s name for YEARS but made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t get it until they reached a point where they couldn’t really change their name before he got it

Like once they’ve cut an album and a couple EPs, survived their first shitty tour of the east coast playing underground shows, once they’re advertised and KNOWN as Spares and can’t change their name without a marketing/rebranding nightmare, THAT’S when he’ll get it

Also, sidebar: you know how people say “overnight success takes years”??? Like people who have blown up seemingly out of nowhere have been working towards that for years and years??? THAT’S SPARES. They’ve been doing underground shows in New York and New Jersey and Philly, they’ve recorded a TON of demos and a couple EPs of questionable quality, they have like two albums written but Jack is holding out on recording them because he wants to do it right

And because we ALL know he 100% lives and is totally and completely fine and healthy, after he recovers from the NONFATAL “I got shot multiple times” incident, it’s actually the media attention of Sweet’s death and/or arrest (everything post snowball fight is up to interpretation imo, because we do NOT accept that ending as canon) and Fowler’s arrest that leads to Spares finally starting to get recognized

Jack recovers and after spending pretty much the whole time he was in the hospital overflowing with ideas and inspiration, he gets back to new york with like two or three albums worth of AMAZING songs

An surprise surprise, their down on his luck manager that’s been scrambling to get them any gig possible is now OVERWHELMED with venues desperate to book them

They have record labels reaching out and getting into BIDDING WARS over them

His bandmates were worried sick when they heard he’d been shot and as soon as Jack gets back to New York and finds out about all the publicity they got from this, he’s like “man, maybe I should get shot up more often”

They’re like “JACK THAT’S NOT FUNNY!!!!!!” even though they’re trying and failing not to laugh. It’s actually very comforting to see that he’s joking about it. He also jokes that now that he’s got bullet wounds he’ll look even more badass to girls. Tattoos, 6’3 guitarist, deep voice sweet smile, AND bullet scars that have a more and more dramatic story every time he tells it???? Who WOULDN’T fall in love????!?!?!!

I could go on but I’ll leave that there and move onto the next tat

Next up, the flaming heart on his right bicep (aka one of my favorites)

It’s incredibly blurry but I PROMISE you it does in fact read Evelyn

WHO’S CUTTING UP ONIONS???????????

I have a whole story about how he got this tattoo, but that’s a story for another time (it has to do with Bobby being a very fun very cool older brother who makes very questionable decisions at time. I’m not elaborating at this moment but will in a later post.)

This was his first tattoo, which in his mind his first tattoo MUST be an homage, thank you, and tribute to his mom Evelyn

Jack, a tried and true and shamelessly loyal mama’s boy, showing up to high school the next day when someone’s like “wait did you get a tattoo of your MOM’S name????”: Duh. like DUH!!!! DUHHHHHH!!!!!

Skull and pointy things, inside of his right forearm

Not positive what the things on the side are supposed to be

It kind of looks like a pelvis/hip bones to me, but it’s probably just jagged pointy banners/framing

Also part of the aesthetic/rockstar vibe he lives and breathes

Skull tattoo is scribbled in marker on a list of things you need to be a rockstar somewhere in his old stuff from when he was kid

Back of left bicep, sleepy beer belly man

At a loss for words with this one honestly

Sleepy beer belly man lives rent free in my head. I have so many questions and fear I will never get an answer

This could be a lot of things

An inside joke, a rare drunk tattoo, an in universe thing, some sort of reference I am fully out of the loop on

I have no idea!

I think sleepy beer belly man is the bees knees. I giggle whenever I catch a glimpse of that goofy little guy

If you or anyone you know has ANY. AND I MEAN ANY INSIGHT on what sleepy beer belly man is or might be, I BEG THEE MILORD. PLEASE GRACE ME WITH THINE WISDOM.

Bonus: tattoos I think he’d get later on

Two doves/birds carrying a banner over a heart. The banner contains your name, and is one of his very very few color tattoos

Your lipstick mark on his neck with your initial (outline or black and white, possibly solid black). Jack might not bring you up all the time (he prefers to let his crowbar and hands do the talking) but he might as well be walking around with a neon t shirt that says ASK ME ABOUT MY GF/BF/BOO THANG PLEASEEEEE ASK ME ABOUT MY SHAWTY BAE!!!!!!!!! He LOVES any excuse to talk about you and brag about you, and he LOVES having a very visible very permanent indicator that his heart actually lives outside of his ribcage and in your pretty pretty hands. Also it’s a little immature/petty of him but he LOVES the moment when groupies realize he’s not into them because he’s exclusively into you. Internally he’s like “yeah, it’s not your fault they’re so perfect and no one can hold a candle to them. But they’re so perfect and no one can hold a candle to them.” it’s like a reward.

More of your kisses SCANDALOUSLY low on his hips lol. Probably either just the one next to his happy trail, or one on either side (we know this boy loves symmetry lmao). Also a bit of a bragging right/excuse to talk about you and how much he loves you.

Five stars on his hand where your fingers sit when you hold his hand :’)

A thin red line around his thumb. He doesn’t explain this one and it takes you forever to realize the meaning behind it (red string of fate)

A small four leaf clover next to/around/over all his bullet scars. Luck for surviving, and more importantly, an homage to the bond between him and his brothers which is really where that luck came from. I’m going to go sob and throw up now.

A cat and banner that reads 8 lives (not 9, 8. It’s giving “I think that god is gonna have to kill me twice, kill me twice like my name was Nikki Sixx” from young and menace by fob. It’s actually very fitting for him tbh.) It’s also a larger reminder that he survived a whole lot of bullshit and will continue to do so, and also sort of a bragging right lol

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