With a total of 43 Metallica tattoos covering the right side of his body, 33-year-old Tom Engelbrecht (Norway) has set a record for the most tattoos of the same band.
“From my ankle to my knee is Metallica’s history: album covers, DVD covers, letters, newspaper clips, and some lyrics,” Tom explained.
His thigh is covered with portraits of every band member since 1983, while his arm is adorned with skulls from the band’s LP covers and official t-shirts.
Tom's other tattoos include song lyrics on his ribs, below which are more skulls, and on his shoulder are notes from the song “Fade to Black”.
Altogether, Tom estimates that he’s spent over 250,000 kroner (£19,000; $24,100). He says he’s stopped counting now but emphasizes that the tattoos were well worth the money.
Over half of them were completed at New Roots Tattoo & Art Collective in Bergen, Norway, by tattooist Bjarte Nødtvedt.
Tom had 18 Metallica tattoos when he first met Bjarte in early 2022, and since then he’s added a further 25. Tom's aim was to have up to a third of his entire body covered in Metallica tatts.
Tom is a big fan of heavy metal music, but Metallica is the only band he’s deemed deserving of a permanent place on his skin.
He’s been to 24 of their shows throughout his life so far, and says his favourite one was probably in Bergen in 2015, although another contender is a 2009 concert during which he got up on stage and sang into the microphone.
“When you go to so many Metallica concerts around the world, you get to know people well. You get to know people from all over the world,” he told Bergensavisen.
Tom has plans to follow Metallica’s tour around Europe later this year, in addition to seeing them at the Tons of Rock festival in Oslo.
He hopes to be able to meet the band at one of these concerts to show off his record-breaking tattoos.
Tom's tattoos feature in the latest episode of our YouTube series Records Weekly, which you can watch below.
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