After all, the hand is one of the most sensitive places on your body to get inked.
The [tattoo artist] is like, Its going to hurt like hell, get some good painkillers!
If anyone knows about overcoming agonyand walking away with great artits Tove Lo.
Credit: Matt Jones
Were always trying to portray toned-down versions of ourselves, Lo says.
Now, on her second album,Lady Wood, the 29-year-old is exposing herself even further.
She has the ability to be really honest in a way that resonates with people in the modern world.
That unfiltered honesty is also refreshing in todays pop landscape.
Its being a fing wreck and then somehow pulling yourself back up.
Maybe you have a little less dignity.
Maybe you add 10 years to your face.
But you got through it.
I didnt enjoy being a kid, she says.
[Everything] had to be really shiny.
We dont share each others issues, we dont talk about it.
Before long, she was working behind the scenes with an impressive roster of collaborators.
Success, and the accompanying scrutiny, made her reconsider the vulnerability of her music.
Yet the months that followed her 2014 debut,Queen of the Clouds, were tumultuous.
Singing is the one thing thats always made me feel leveled, she says.
I had so much to get off my chest.
So much, in fact, that shes already recorded hernextalbum.
It feels like a new start in my lifelike 2.0, really.
And the lynx tattoo is an emblem for that fresh start.
The following day, at an industry listening party forLady Wood, Lo shows off the finished ink.
The session hurt like f, she says, but she declined any breaks.
She isnt taking painkillers, either.
It might hurt a lot, but it doesnt mattershe knows she can take the pain.
