Flea Of The Red Hot Chili Peppers Talks About His Jimi Hendrix Tattoo

When Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, he’ll go in with a fellow Hall of Fame inductee on his shoulder.

Astute RHCP fans will know that Flea has a tattoo of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix on his left bicep and he recently shared the history behind his rock and roll body art with Rolling Stone.

“It was 1981 and everyone was talking about this great tattoo artist in town. I was probably smoking a joint and said ‘I want a Hendrix tattoo!’ I remember afterward my mom or my stepdad said to me, 'do you know the psychological implications of tattoos as your life goes on?’”

Flea is happy to be inducted in the same year that his longtime friends, the Beastie Boys and Guns N’ Roses, are going in.

“Steven Adler and I played football in the street when we were 12. I remember rehearsing in my bedroom with my first band, and some kid climbed over the fence of my backyard and peeked his head in the window to see who was rocking. It was Slash.”

He says that the induction ceremonies will be a “really cool, special night,” although he hasn’t figured out what he’ll say at the podium. Don't worry, he remembers enough about his last time there to consider tweaking his prepared remarks. “I inducted Metallica [in 2009] and that might have been long-winded.”