If you think seeing a Broadway show 50 times means true love, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson dramaturg Anne Davison will do you one better. This devoted Bloody team member has put her heart on her sleeve for President Andrew Jackson. Forever. That’s right, to commemorate her experience with the historical(ish) rock musical, Davison got a tattoo—her first ever!—of the AJ logo on the inside of her left wrist.
“I’m not what I would classify as ‘a tattoo person,’” Davison told Broadway.com. “I don’t even have my ears pierced, so this is pretty out of character.” So why would this ink-averse lady make the leap into such permanent Broadway branding?
“I’m hoping the show outlasts the tattoo, which means it has to run for at least the rest of my lifetime,” Davison said with a laugh. “And I’m hoping that when my grandkids are standing in the lotto line for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson tickets I can seem cool to their friends.”
The logo Davison selected isn’t on the poster currently peppering New York City’s bus stops and subway stations, featuring a denim-clad butt and the immortal line “History Just Got all Sexypants.” Rather, her design echoes the show’s nod to emo music culture, based on the band Dashboard Confessional’s re-purposing of the AC/DC logo. “This logo is actually one of the few things that’s been with the show longer than [star] Ben Walker’s butt,” the dramaturg joked.
Joking aside, Davison wanted to commemorate what has been an important experience for her, both professionally and personally. “I’ve been working on Bloody for about five years, since before its first workshop at Williamstown,” she recalled. “I don’t want this to sound clichéd or over the top, but this is truly an extraordinary group of people to work with and the show has become incredibly special to me. Every time we thought it was done, it just kept going further, and now here’s this scrappy little show on Broadway.”
No matter how long Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson treads the Broadway boards, Davison can’t see herself regretting her decision to get inked. “I hope the show runs a really long time, of course, but when it ends it won’t be a laser tattoo removal emergency or anything,” she said. “It’ll be a great talking point, and a chance to bring up what was not only a great theatrical experience, but one of the greatest experiences of my life so far.”