Tattoo (The Who Song) - Lyrics and Music

Lyrics and Music

"Tattoo" is a "rite of passage" song. The singer sings that he and his brother, as teenagers, were discussing "what makes a man a man." They decided to get tattoos. Their father disapproved of the tattoos and beat the singer. However, his mother approved the singer's tattoo, which said "Mother," but beat the brother because the brother got a tattoo of "a lady in the nude." The song ends with the singer revealing that he now is married to a woman who is also tattooed.

Themes of the song include peer pressure to conform and young men's insecurity about their manhood. Townshend has said that the inspiration for the song came from memories from the time he was about eleven or twelve years old of seeing men with tattoos all up and down their arms, and being concerned that that would happen to him eventually. Townshend originally did not expect Who lead singer Roger Daltrey to be willing to sing such a song about questioning one's manhood, and when Daltrey sang it, and well, Townshend realized that despite his bravado Daltrey shared many of the insecurities Townshend had. Townshend has also stated that the song was written as an album track at a time he had begun to feel that his guitar playing was being overshadowed by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and so he decided to start writing "a different kind of song...story–songs, cameos, essays on human experience."

"Tattoo" begins with arpeggios played on both electric and acoustic guitar. The song is mixed such that the electric guitar is heard only through the left stereo channel and the acoustic guitar is heard only through the right stereo channel. Author Chris Charlesworth describes the melody as being "particularly attractive and mature" and also comments on the "unusually complex rhymes" used. Authors Steve Grantley and Alan Parker praise Daltrey's vocal performance, noting that it "intrigues and seduces" and finds him projecting an uncharacteristically "passive, pensive mood." Who author John Atkins praises the "immaculate" vocal harmonies and imaginative instrumentation.

The Who recorded "Odorono" on October 12, 1967 at IBC Studios.