Knuckle tattoos: Millennials are getting creative with eight characters

Photographer Edward Bishop began photographing knuckle tattoos back in 2009, and turned his collection into a self-published book

Nicknamed "career killers" or "job stoppers", knuckle tattoos – which are famously difficult to hide – are often a last resort for body-art enthusiasts with no space left on their skin (Edward Bishop)

LOVE them or HATE them, knuckle tattoos have become something of a subversive trend. No longer the preserve of sailors and convicts, finger art is being popularised by Millennials, who are getting creative with eight characters. (And you thought Twitter's 140-character limit was a challenge.)

Photographer Edward Bishop began photographing knuckle tattoos back in 2009, visiting Brighton and London, as well as tattoo conventions across the UK, to shoot these tats in their natural habitats. He turned his collection into a self-published book in 2014.

Nicknamed "career killers" or "job stoppers", knuckle tattoos – which are famously difficult to hide – are often a last resort for body-art enthusiasts with no space left on their skin.

The archetypal knuckle tattoo is, of course, LOVE HATE. First seen on the fists of sociopathic preacher the Reverend Harry Powell in the 1955 thriller The Night of the Hunter, (as played by Robert Mitchum), this option is still one of the most common. HOLD FAST is also widely used, traditionally by superstitious sailors who believed the words helped them hold on more tightly in a storm.

Now, the knuckle tattoo has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, with phrases such as BUFF TING, FOXY LADY, and BURRITOS finding their way on to elaborately decorated digits. But choosing exactly what to say can be tricky. Should you opt for one long word or two short ones? And is it OK to include thumbs? As with most body art, people tend to use knuckle tattoos as a way of expressing something about themselves. It could be that they're hard-working (SELF MADE), or high maintenance (LADY MUCK). What would I get? Probably SORRY MUM.

'Knuckles' by Edward Bishop; knuckletattoos.co.uk/the-book; edwardbishop.me