It would appear that Stuart has never played a Fallout game before, otherwise he would have recognized that as the Bloody Mess perk, which was first seen in Fallout 1.

jasu78

Pipboy is already a classic and iconic avatar after the MASSIVELY HUGE success of fallout 1and2 ...you know the ones who wernt made by berthseda....pc?

no?

awesome fucking tat!!

origamikid

*looks at the former Zune Guy*

I have a bad case of De Ja Vu.

danman227460

Well fallout is already a classic :| And that's one of the perks from the original games so doesn't matter if F3 bombs or not :|

Dao2SKP

As several people have said, the image has nothing in particular to do with Fallout 3. It was present in Fallout 1 and 2 for over half a decade before Fallout 3 was even announced.

FinalFrog

Personally I think the actual tattoo work needs a little touching up.

Cool piece though. I always like the Kotaku tattoo posts.

Rubix42

The Bloody Mess picture has been a standard for 3 games now (not including Tactics: Brotherhood of steel) and is somewhat an iconic symbol for the series.

Jypsy

Protip: Fallout 1 and 2 are already classics and considered some of the best westerns RPGs ever.

Lider

These pics were from fallout 1 and 2 already, if I got a diablo tattoo would I be wrong because Diablo III aint out yet.

Djnardu

Uhh...Did you people forget that Fallout One and Two existed?
Fallout one had this picture/scene.

So, yeah. I'm pretty sure it's a scene from a verified classic.

Ad-hominem

I think it's a cool looking tat, no matter how Fallout 3 end up.

killer_meatballs

Fallout has enough clout as a series to warrant cool tattoos, don't fail me now Kotaku. :P

Momentarylogic

@muu: beat me to the punch!

Comments 'rnt Us (usually)

While I think this game is going to be good.
He can always use the excuse that he loved the classic game and chose the iconography from that. It won't be as bad as the poor sod with the too human tattoo getting a 50-50 reaction.

Comments 'rnt Us (usually)

Fallout1 and 2 were good, so if 3 turns out to be shit in a bag his tattoo will merely go from being the fallout3 tattoo to the Fallout 1/2 tattoo.

muu

I'm getting one.

sixonedoesitall

I would laugh my tits off if fallout turned out to be a pile of poop!

One of my mates got a Korn tat on his arm. it had a clowm with 5 fingers and a thumb under it.

BIG MISTAKE!

GOD

Still isn't worse than "metal gear hamfists".

Genocyde

At least it's an image that can stand on its own.

Brine

I like the tattoo since it can stand on its own. One can enjoy the art not knowing a damn thing about Fallout 3 unlike the majority of gamer tattoos.

Kudos skinny white arm dude.

iamspoo

Excellent journalistic skillz displayed Stuart Houghton. Um... you know why there's a 3 at the end of the title? It's because there was Fallout, and then a Fallout 2... guess which Vault Boy made appearances in both? ;)

AoE

haha Stuart, for a second that headline reminded me of the onion. Well done.

And yes yes, we got it. It's from fallout 1 etc etc. Point taken, guys.

Spoony Bard

Strt... thnk th thr cmmnts hv sffcntly stblshd tht y'r n00b.

Nc try, thgh. t wldn't b th Ktk w ll knw nd lv f th smmry ddn't ncld pntlss, ll-nfrmd ttmpt t nslt smn r strt flmwr.

alaren

Gd rtcl prfssr DRRRP. spclly lk th wy y ct s f Fllt 1 ∓ 2 rn't cnsdrd "clsscs"

Arstrig

@muu: yah, i agree. whoever wrote this article is obviously someone who hasn't played the first two. This has been the symbol for Bloody Mess since the first Fallout, only now its not a trait, they're categorizing it as a perk.

Naaloq

Considering that Iconography was used in Fallout 1 and 2 for the Bloody Mess skill, I don't think it really matters all that much if Fallout 3 sucks.

It's already been said, but dammit I want to say it too!

Tesahli

@origamikid: Dude, that's the Vault Boy, not the PipBoy. The PipBoy is a piece of technology, like a GameBoy.

*sigh*

HT Tenrai

@jasu78: All signs point to that. There's nothing on that tattoo that says "Fallout 3 rules!!!! OMGZ0RS`2!!" explicitly.

umiman

Don't you know that Fallout 1 and 2 were...

Oh, wait. I'm late to the party. Dammit.

HT Tenrai

@David Lo
Very nice tat though man. Well worth the money in any fan's eyes.

Naaloq

"Sure, Fallout 3 is looking good and all signs point to it being a decent game.."

Actually, all signs point to it being a failure. The REAL Fallout 3 was canceled years ago and this is nothing but a nuked Oblivion with guns that has the Fallout name slapped on it. I'm sure they will take out a majority of things like killing kids, killing whoever you want, etc (basically all the good things that made the previous games great).

No trophy support for PS3 & exclusive DLC for 360 just screams failure for this game even more. The game is garbage and I won't be playing it. The series ended with Fallout 2.

DNAgent

It's not like you can't get them removed, they've got stuff now where you can just put stuff on your skin.

Vots

This article needs a revision

Djnardu

@DNAgent: Although you sound like a bitter PS3 owner, the joke's on both consoles because the PC version will have more content available than any other. Some trophies and a couple of official addons won't have much effect on whether or not the game is successful.

Aerundel

I think they've changed vault boy to Pipboy now. Last time I checked Betheseda was refering to him as Pipboy, which makes sense as I'm not sure he was actually named previously. Stand to be corrected though

jacksonmc

I wonder how many people will continue to comment just saying "As said before by everyone else..."

RageKage

As other people have said, the author of this article apparently doesn't know that having a '3' after a title means that there were (at least) 2 to come before it, and yes, that imagery has always been used in the series. Way to be ignorant.

GusherKid

@DNAgent: According to one of the dev interviewS, you can actually attack kids in Fallout 3. THey will run away and every adult nearby will turn on you, sO I Don't think you can kill them--but apparently they are there and can be attackeD.

I'm sad that Van Buren never saw completion, too, but everYthing I've seen so far suggests that Fallout 3 Just has mOre in common with FalloUt 2 than with Oblivion. We can't Really kNow for sure until we plAy it, of course! But I think if you're a fan of the originaL games, you owe It to yourSelf to give this one a chance. I certainly intend to.

As for trophy support and DLC, what's that got to do with anything? Surely a die-hard fan of the series would be playing this one on the PC?

Also, reMember that Fallout 1 & 2 ARE bona fide classics.

alaren

I think half of the people that get tattoos have no foresight,

Omniel

why do people get tattoos that are funny, or jokes, most jokes are old the second time you hear it.

Omniel

@jasu78: And apparently, I also cannot read. Kindly disregard my idiocy, and let's all go back to making fun of Stuart.

jasu78

@alaren: I thought that your randomly capitilized letters were some kind of secret message, but "ASDTHOIDDIVBYFOFUOWRNALISDLCPCMFARE" doesn't seem to say anything. So I tried taking only the mis-capitalized letters, but once again, "STHODDYOURNALISM" doesn't really say much of anything, other than you can't spell.

jasu78

man this is one seriously sweet tattoo. i cannot believe i never thought of getting something like this myself, despite my complete and utter lack of tattoo's. i blame it on lack of ideas, but yeah, this one is golden.

uppitycracker

@jacksonmc: The answer to your question is here...

[www.nma-fallout.com]

I haven't seen Bethesda referring to Vault Boy as Pipboy, but if they were, someone should rap their knuckles and remind them that this exact mistake is just one of many made by the Fallout Tactics blokes. They do NOT want to be THOSE guys.

alaren

I believe Fallout 1 and 2 has well established Vault Boy as the iconic video game character that he is, regardless of how well received Fallout 3 is.

Besides, "bloody Mess", the trait this tattoo depicts IS from Fallout 1 and 2, so the guy wearing the tattoo is safe either way.

Grimspoon

that image existed since the first game, so it's classic.

relax_guy

Area man has difficult time explaining tattoo.

Patient

@RageKage: As said before by everyone else, there was a 1, and MAYBE even a 2. Don't quote me on that, it's purely wild rumor that an unreliable source told me. I think that they possibly tried to go the Star Wars route, but they actually started on the first game before any of the others, so epic facepalm on that one.

Chanthas

@Grimspoon: what he said

mikhailian

It's not necessarily tied to Fallout 3 -- looks great!

Snake726

i guess this shows that some people really do buy into all the hype.

and i bet he didn't get paid. sigh.

bialia

Vault boy is badass no matter how you splice it.

LuppyLuptonium

I'll pretend I never saw this tattoo or else I'll start hoping that the game sux.

But it won't, I'm shure it won't:
[xspblog.com]

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@Cpryd001: I agree, crappy angle for the post!

Ozzieball

As a person with a Vagrant story tattoo, I can't really say anything bad about this.

nice ink bro!

mrantimatter

How does this reference exclusively Fallout 3?

If Fallout 3 sucks, he could contribute it to the awesomeness of Fallout 2. Or, you know, Fallout. Or even Fallout Brotherhood of Steel.

I'm calling you out on this, Stuart Houghton!! YOU HEAR ME?! This is shoddy reporting!

Cpryd001

I think he'll regret this one 20 years down the line. But for now, it looks cool.

kylo4

Strange.

I had a dream that I went in to get a Fallout tattoo, and the artist tricked me, giving me a massive Nintendo iconic characters tattoo. Still, it was quality work, so I couldn't be that mad. Then again, I'm obsessed with Fallout, but I've never so much as seen played most Nintendo games.

Slatz_Grobnik

@Cpryd001: Beat me and said it much more detailedly.

Yeah I said detailedly.(TM)

stereoa

That's the graphic for bloody mess. NOT made famous by FO1/2.

stereoa

@Slatz_Grobnik: ...the artist tricked me, giving me a massive Nintendo iconic characters tattoo...but I've never so much as seen played most Nintendo games.

Never played a Nintendo game? Sounds like karma to me.

I kid. ;)

eugaet

Y'know, I recon everyone should hold off on tatoos for a while until that freedom2 erasable ink (or whatever it's called) comes out. That way, when you're so wrinkly that everyone thinks your mario tattoo is a goomba(assuming you live that long), you can have it erased with a few minutes under a special lightbulb, no scarring. Seems like the smart way to go to me.

JokesJokes

What are you talking about, Stuart? Fallout came out ages ago, and it IS awesome, which makes this tattoo awesome as well!

Pantsman

I just got the idea today to get this exact same tatoo. Back to the old drawing board.

NeoStarr