Lenny Kravitz, the very epitome of cool… not only is he a courageous and bold musician, crossing over genre barriers by “fusing the rich, soulful and often rocking sounds of the 60’s and 70’s to receptive audiences of every class, creed and color”, the man reinvented retro music and has firmly established himself as an icon. Granted, he had the advantage of growing up in the presence of such legends as Count Basie, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald but he started off singing in a choir and his first attempt at creating a musical persona failed miserably with his Romeo Blue period. Then again, it was a time when he was heavily influenced by Prince, or he with no name… It was only when he realigned himself and incorporated his love for Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and other unlikely bed partners (musically speaking) that he unshackled himself from the genre police and flew into our psyches.
He was even married to Lisa Bonet at one time, she of Cosby Show fame.
Kravitz is not only a successful musician in his own right, he also wrote hit songs for people like Madonna, Led Zeppelin and Mick Jagger, Aerosmith and Vanessa Paradis. He won Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the Grammys four years on the trot – from 1999 to 2002, but the best claim we have to his fame is that he was voted No.1 In the poll seeking the ‘World’s 101 Hottest Tattooed Men in 2007’. Here is what the poll page had to say: “Great tattoos just for starters. Musician has dragon on left shoulder, cross and various others on arms and rest of body. Between the fact that he’s a musician, he has a great body, he’s kinda rough around the edges and he’s super laid back, there isn’t much to not love about Lenny Kravitz…” I won’t bore you with the rest, but the words ‘stud’ and ‘hot’ come into play…
Lenny Kravitz has one astoundingly stunning tattoo. It is not his only one but it is the one you will remember him by. There is an exquisite multicoloured Japanese dragon draped over his shoulder, coming to rest on his right chest. As we know, the dragon is a symbol of the supernatural, representing otherworldly power. This tattoo finds a way to incorporate the rest of the tattoos further down Lenny’s arm. It is mainly done in black and grey but the occasional deep red has an amazing effect of almost making the creature jump out of the swirls of wind, smoke and water surrounding it. The sheer audacity of the design and its size make an everlasting impression that competes with its otherworldliness.
Actually, I must confess that the tattoo that Lenny is currently most famous for is the one on his left butt cheek – yes, as in the pic he uploaded to his Twitter account last month, yes, in the shower, yes, it caused an absolute uproar in his fan base and yes, we all loved him just that little bit more for it…
