"My favorite piece, which is the flames, was done by a good friend of mine named Jeff Tilman who owns a shop in California called Tattoo Deluxe. He's a very talented artist and he's been tattooing for about 16 years. The inspiration for the flames coincides with my upper arms which are based on fish and ocean creatures and represents my sign Pisces. I was born on March 20th which is the cusp of Aries, a fire sign, so they symbolize both sides of my personality, fire and water."

"The coy fish [Japanese Koi carp] on my upper right arm is by my friend Chewbacca who works at Club Tattoo in Tempe, Arizona. It's an original that I drew. My first piece ever was the sleeve of my left arm, which is my Pisces. That was an original piece done by Jody at the same shop in Arizona. The color was done by Wes at that shop."

"The ring finger on my left hand, which is my engagement band, was done by a friend named Derrick and was designed by my wife. She also has the same tattoo. The reason we have those is because I was too poor to purchase a ring. I had a good friend who owned a tattoo shop so I got these for free which was pretty cool." They got those tattoos before Pamela and Tommy Lee did too.

"The pinkie on my right hand is my birthstone in a gold ring, that's the birthstone for March and was given to me as a gift on my birthday, my 21st I think."

"My backpiece was also done by Derrick in Arizona and it's his interpretation of me on stage. He claimed that I have an overwhelming power to take over the audience and pull them in and he thought that I needed more then two arms to do that so he gave me six more." (His back piece is six arms spread out). Originally the placement of his backpiece was supposed to be around his diaphragm extending from his belly button but Samantha (his wife) didn't want to look at that every day of her life.

"The piece on my calf which is my most recent piece was done by a gentleman named Dee who works at a shop in Jacksonville, Florida. I don't know the name of the shop, but he's an amazing artist and a very cool guy. He's become a good friend and did this piece for free...my most recent piece which is the cover of our record 'Hybrid Theory' was done on a whim and it's the only tattoo I've had done on a whim, but it's turned out to be one of my favorite pieces. It was done in the dressing room of the Hard Rock Live in Orlando, Florida."

Chester is very picky when it comes to his tattooists, he got his first tattoo when he was 18. "I kind of want all my pieces to be a story. A lot of people have cool tattoos, but they're meaningless to them. Everything I have was either done for me by someone which has meaning or is a part of who I am."

"I was born in the year of the dragon so I want a dragon on my right calf. And I made a bet with Jeff Tilman that if we went platinum he had to do Linkin Park in old English across my lower back for free and we just went platinum." Chester does in fact have the 'Linkin Park' tattoo done already.

"Tattoos are permanent and a lifelong commitment, the same as marraige. I figure if I'm gonna make a lifelong commitment with a person then I need to respect their boundaries. I've actually discussed every piece I've had done except the first because that was done before I met her. But at the same time I'm still my own person and I wanted to get the album cover done and I didn't discuss that with her. She saw it and fell in love with it but she said 'Don't ever do that again!' I'd definately recommend tattoos for everyone, but just respect yourself and respect the idea of waht you're doing to yourself."

"Tattoos exude pain and pleasure all at the same time."

Before Linkin Park's success, Chester didn't want to go too overboard with tattoos because he knows that no matter how stupid it is for people to pass judgement on his tattoos, he knew it would happen and he needed to keep a job and make money. Now that he has money though, he will do what he wants, as long as Samantha is cool with it.

-CHESTER