honestly this seems to have gone a bit far. someone might "own" this logo because they created it, but selling this as a patch or having it as a microcosm logo doesn't take away from the beauty of human beings attaching meaning to what is considered to them to be a powerful image, so much so that they'd put it on their body, forever. thats like saying that the asshole who sold the anarchy symbol on a hot topic shirt owns the rights to that image, because of course that image doesn't BELONG to that person, and the little copyright symbol in the corner sure as hell ain't gonna keep people from using it in their zines or tatting it on their arm. lets be realistic here. imagery is much too powerful to be hoarded by a few. no one could ever get away with that. and why would you want to? its obvious that we all know who made this symbol, we all know who the imagery "belongs" to, but for fucks sake, i hope the "owner" doesn't denounce every person that has the tattoo, just like i'd hope CRASS or the Dead Kennedys wouldn't denounce every person with their band logo tatted on them. lets come together as community and stop finding these asinine and trivial reasons to divide, and find better, more constructive topics of debate. this "business", its "customers", and contributors are all amazing, and i'm willing to bet that...all tattoos and silly differences of opinon aside... you'd all have a lot in common, a lot to unite under...right? sarina

This isn't really a big deal. The gossip and rumors circles made it into a big deal. I don't care. Get it tattooed on your face, get it tattooed on your ass, get it tattooed on your mom. I am bored with people emailing me about this or assuming that I will be upset if they get it tattooed. My only real statement is that it is kind of odd to me that someone would get, what is essentially, our LOGO tattooed...but I have band tattoos and other such imagery (mostly) created by other people. I have had numerous embarrassing moments; such as the one where some kid at an Against Me! show was swinging on the rafters and light fixtures and had the tattoo. Then it's just kind of a bad association. Bit I digress...do what you want. It's your body. Joe Biel

if not you guys some other person with the same amount of love for them would have come up with it. there's unlimited amounts of things you can do with a chainring. I came up with one for zoobomb I have on me that has a "Z" inside of one that I have tattooed. So someone was bound to come up with a heart at some point. but honestly sometimes, especially in this situation tattoos of this should be meant as flattery, or in your case come up with another design to let people get tattooed. Have fun cutting tattoos out of people since you "branded" it. I know a few people in portland that have it and I was thinking about getting it too, just cause of my love for bikes I have. j.

you could take it as a complement, maybe. i have a friend who got it tattooed and he loves you guys. and bikes. nessa

biker joe, Joe and i were married in 2002, about 4 years and never intended for the chainring image to become popular, how could we expect that? Our friend designed it for us and we felt like sharing it through the business that we poured our time and energy into, a business that became a part of us. We had no idea that other people would identify with it like they have. We saw microcosm as part of us and that is why we use it as our logo. We also see our customers as part of our community. with that in mind, I don't think it is out of line to ask for people to respect our wishes. When bootlegging and tattoos of our image seemed to get out of hand a few years ago (seeing several people with the exact same tattoo on the exact same part of their body) we put up the request on the site. We figured that at this point we could stop printing it but we were sure others would just continue to bootleg it anyway. so we decided to just, for lack of a better word "brand" it as ours. We figure that if it is going to be used, it should be used by us to do what it was intended to do, represent us. alex wrekk

That's kinda stupid to sell your logo but then tell people not to get it tattooed because it has such a significant meaning. If it did you shouldn't have sold it like you did. I would like to be emailed back about this.- Biker Joe Biker Joe

this image is also a simplified version of the wedding tattoo that aaron renier designed for joe and i in 2002. it represents our love of bicycles and bicycle culture. we have chosen to share it because it represents us, our lifestyle and our values. i would appreciate if you would not get this design as a tattoo because it has personal significance to us. alex wrekk

Is this just the Microcosm Publishing logo, or does it have another meaning that I am unaware of? Dan

Yes, it means bicycle love. It's a bicycle chainring with a heart in it. Joe