Ville Hermanni Valo (born 22 November 1976), is a Finnish singer, songwriter, and frontman of the Finnish rock band HIM. Valo was also the drummer for the Daniel Lioneye project. Ville has a baritone vocal range. Most of his tattoos have been done by Kat Von D.
Ville Valo on his tattoos:
"I think if you use different tattoo artists to do a sleeve it just ends up looking crap. My idea came after I met this dude and we were drinking a lot. He told me he was a tattooist, as well as a guitar player - he actually played in HIM for a while. We got completely wasted and I told him to do this little heart, here on my right wrist, that was my first one. I got it to see how it felt."
"We got drunk again a week later and we got the idea to do the sleeve, it just came to us. The ornaments were designed by him but he's moved to Amsterdam. When I get a couple of days off I'll go and see him 'cos I want a few more things done."
"What I wanted to do was one thing with the whole arm. Originally we planned to do both sleeves and the back but it took such a long time and we were doing our first tour around Europe. I used to be a heavy drinker when I was bit younger, as did the guy, so we'd drink a lot, listen to Motörhead full volume, do a couple of hours and then end up in the local pub. It took a fucking long time! It was all freehand 'cos around the whole thing you can't draw it out, you just have to do it as it happens. There's a couple of things which we drew and then we just started. I still have to finish it properly but we just haven't had the time. Maybe one day".
"The heart on my right wrist, some stuff on my legs, a heart-gram on my neck and a letter "s" on my chest. I did it as a birthday present of my girlfriend. Suzanna but when we fall out of love , as we do every now and then, I claim it's for satan or whatever stars with an "s". I got the heart first then this thing on my stomach above my tiny little pecker. Bam's (Margera) got the same. Then after that I got the sleeve, then my neck, then legs."
"I must have been 18 or 19 when I got my first tattoo. I never wanted to just go to a tattoo parlous and pick something of the wall."
Valo was in Helsinki based bands B.L.O.O.D 1987-88, Eloveena Boys 1987-88, Kemoterapia 1989-99 and Daniel Lioneye. Ville Valo has also starred in a video by Finnish band The 69 Eyes.
Valo is frontman of the Finnish rock band HIM, who have released six studio albums and four compilation albums. They became the first Finnish rock band to achieve a gold record in the United States. Valo was also the drummer for the Daniel Lioneye project which featured HIMs guitarist and bassist Linde Lindstrom on vocals/lead guitar and Migé Amour on bass. In 2004 Ville was awarded the "Golden God" award at the Metal hammer Awards. He is also notorious for chain-smoking cigarettes excessively both onstage and in interviews. This habit stemmed from dealing with performance anxiety. In 2007, Ville admitted in an interview for SuicideGirls that he was an alcoholic and is currently dealing with sobriety. His alcoholism had stemmed from panic attacks that began in 2003 during the recording of HIM's album Love Metal. He presently resides in his 4 story tower in the Munkkiniemi district of Helsinki.
Want to find out what some of Ville Valo's tattoo designs & symbols mean?
Check out: Heart Tattoo Designs,
Flames,
Memorial tattoos,
Star tattoo.
