Frank Turner, bona fide English rock star, passed through The Maritimes this weekend making stops in Halifax, Moncton, and Fredericton. He left behind a wake of blown away fans, and made an unexpected tour stop to take something away with him.
In a late excursion to White Lotus Tattoo in Fredericton, Frank made good on a promise to add a tattoo of the province to his already extensive roster. “He showed up after we had closed and asked if anyone could tattoo him. He just wanted a simple classic NB tattoo and I had never had the chance to do one, so I said ok,” says tattoo artist Max Baird.
“I had never heard of him. He said he was playing a show at The Capital, and that he had promised his fans that he would get one. I figured that maybe he would give me or White Lotus a shout out at the show or something, so I agreed to do it. He had a whole leg sleeve of small ‘tour’ tattoos, so I thought it would be cool to be a part of his collection.”
In an extraordinarily short period of time, Turner inadvertently surmised each phase of growing up in New Brunswick, culminating in the tattoo itself. Perhaps unaware of what he’d just experienced, Turner chalked his reasoning up to, “Boredom and opportunity, mostly. But I also like the underdogs in life, and someone told me that ‘no one gets a New Brunswick tattoo’, so I thought I’d refute that statement.”
Immediately following his shows and tattoo, Turner headed west.
While it was Turner’s first visit to The Maritimes, he’s vowed to return, and given that’s still less commitment than his new tattoo, we expect to see him again. “Joel Plaskett and I toured together in the rest of Canada a few years back. He’s a lovely guy and a Haligonian, and he’d sold the place to me pretty well.”
Cover photo by Nicole C Kibert