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Hanna Beth Merjos and her friends Sarah Chapin and May Rose have matching “Valley Dolls” tattoos on the sides of their fingers with anarchy symbols for the A’s and dollar signs for the S’s. The tattoo is a reference to the book and movie “Valley of the Dolls” and the San Fernando Valley where they live. They got them done in November 2012.
Hanna Beth got “Wild Child” tattooed on her left elbow with Ivey Ensley at Sunset Strip Tattoo in Los Angeles, CA in February 2010.
Emily Armstrong has a “ds” tattoo on her right elbow for her band Dead Sara. She and the rest of the band got the matching tattoos done in May 2013 by artist Rus Laich.
Best Coast singer Bethany Cosentino has three tattoos on the onside of her left arm.
On her upper arm is an illustraion of a two-tailed mermaid, also know as a Melusine. The tattoo resembles the original logo of Starbucks coffee.
On her elbow are the words “California Dreamin'”
One her forearm is a solid black silhouette of the state of California with the silhouette of a bear, California’s state animal, in the negative space. Best Coast’s logo looks like this but with a cat instead of a bear.
Bethany Cosentino has a tattoo with writing on the inside of her right wrist
Bethany Cosentino’s “California Dreamin'” tattoo on her right elbow
The pirate swords on Carah Faye Charnow’s stomach were her very first tattoo and are her only tattoo without a meaning. More recently in March 2013 artist Dam Smith added a series of letters and numbers that represent Carah’s straight edge (drug free) lifestyle. The swords themselves look like X’s.
The letters “SE” stand for “Straight Edge” while “84” is for 1984, the year she was born. “OLOC” stands for “One Life One Chance,” which a song by the straight edge band H20 as well as the name of H20 singer Toby Morse’s anti-drug advocacy organization.
Carah considers herself straight edge since 1984 because she has always been drug free. Her uncle was killed by a drunk driver when she was a child, making her aware of the dangers of drinking from a young age. In her One Life Once Chance testimonial, Carah explains: “When I was about 5 or 6 years old my uncle died in a drunk driving accident. My grandmother was crying and I didn’t understand, and they explained to me what happened. My grandmother was freaking out and she grabbed me and she said ‘Carah, promise me that you will never, ever drink.’…And I was like ‘I promise grandma, I swear.’ I was so young, but I understood that alcohol had killed him.”
As she’s grown older, Carah’s convictions have grown even stronger. She says “It is so important to me that people know that there is nothing good that comes from [drugs and alcohol]…It just gets you no where. Every moment of my life that has reminded me of that has only strengthened me.”
Carah Faye Charnow has “Walk Together / Rock Together” tattooed across both of her forearms. She explains: “Walk Together, Rock Together” was an album/title track for a punk band names 7 Seconds. I had it on cassette and it was one of my favorites back in the day! It’s just a great message of unity.”
Carah Faye Charnow has the words “Straight and Level” tattooed on the inside of her right wrist. Carah says that the writing on both of her wrists are her most meaningful tattoos: “‘Straight and Level’…was what my Grandfather end his stories with.”
The tattoo also represents positive thinking. Explaining this tattoo, Carah wrote “cause forward should be the only direction we know #PMA.”
The “PMA” tattoo inside Carah Faye Charnow’s lip stands for “Positive Mental Attitude.” The importance of keeping a PMA is stressed in the straight edge culture.
