Skulls, maltese crosses, skeletons, grim reapers, etc all that chit goes back to post WWII hot rod and harley owners taking symbols used by various segments of the military during and after the war, Airborne and others I believe. Just a part of the biker culture and history - look at any art work including Dave Mann's stuff - skulls all over the place, Ghostrider legend, and all. Sinister, evil, warding off bad spirits, making a statement, who cares if ya like 'em, wear 'em, put 'em on your bike, put 'em in your tats, whatever floats your boat!

Me? I'm friggin' obsessed with 'em, always have been! Just not the ***** G/moco ones. Been collecting for years and got 'em on my jackets, t-shirts, hot rods, harleys, pickup, and art work (poster, prints, sculptures) all over my house!! [:@]

 

It's all symbolism...it's what all of us H-D owner's look like after the stealerships have sucked our wallets dry, then the clothes off our back's & finally the skin right off our bones! It's basically what we look like after we've customized our bikes for a few years!

 

Its funny how a skull or any " Badass " item makes you any more or less a biker..
Its my ride and i have a couple on it.
Dont really care who thinks what.

 

I think it symbolizeswhat I look like after riding hundreds of miles till the wind blows the skin offa my face. The heck with windshields.

I wouldn't put a skull on my bike......Well I can't say that. Grateful Dead Steal Your Face would look pissah on my roundprimary derby cover.....DING DING! Next project........Off to the drawing board

 

The Harley Davidson Logos
Every great company needs some kind of logo that makes it recognizable. As soon as Harley Davidson recognized that it had developed its cash cow, it created its first logo. This logo is usually called the bar and shield logo. This is the logo that you see on all of the bikes.
The skull and wings logo came about because in the early 1930s, motorcycle riders started to develop a kind of modern day outlaw reputation. The skull and wings logo is a derivative of the skull and bones logo. Americans typically associate the skull and bones logo with poison or death. This logo was first placed on tombstones in the late 1600s. Harley Davidson morphed this logo into its own by removing the bones and adding wings.
Dealers in different areas of the country can add certain elements to the logo. For example, the Colorado dealer ahs added mountains to the background of one of its Harley Davidson logos. Adding anything to Harley Davidson logos has to be approved by the company first.


Skulls have been around as biker logos for a long time get use to it !

http://www.rmh-d.com/info/logo.php

I put them on my bike so that when I am not around it someone may think twice about messing with my bike. Its my statement of "Danger dont f*ck with me"! Sure beats having flowers on my bike.

 

That's totally messed up but an absolute fact that I deal with all the time.
When I am in my Deptvehicle a big white Pick up that screams "Public Servant",
I am constantly tailgated and cut off.
People know full well that you won't/can't do anything about it.
If you so much as look at them the wrong way they will report you to the Guvna.

And it's automatically their word that's taken over yours.[:@]

Aaarrgh, that peaves me off.


Sorry for the subject change, sigh.[&o]

 

Owners just naturally want to personalize the bike I guess. The skull thing is being way overused I think, esp the Willie skulls, dozens and dozens of Willie skulls all over the bike, I wonder what the Willie G skull record is?? Even like wheel weights with skulls. but whatever you're in to. Other themes that are overdone are flames. What else is there? Dice and playing cards (gambling themes), lady themes can be fun, iron cross, bullets/guns, hmmmm. What else? Jus the Harley bar and shield, I've seen lots of bikes plastered with that where ever you look on the bike. I would almost count "flat black" as a theme too, and maybe you can even count "chrome" as a look, every single thing chromed. "Lights", how 'bout them Goldwingers that need an extra alternator and battery because of all the lights? HDs and crotch rockets kind of get this look going too, tiny LEDs to light up the engine. Go to a bike night and walk around and you see they evidently draw low enough amps that they can leave the light show going when parked! Oh, flags and eagles, theres a couple more common themes.
Gilly

 

+1 ! I agree, skulls and death have nothing to do with being evil, it is a sense that death, as a very real possibility while riding our motorcycles, is acknowledged and we take a bow to it.

If ya think you aren't flirting with death when you ride off on your bike, take a look at some of the statistics.

I have skulls, and that's why I ride with them.[:@]

 

I agree that skulls are played out. That's why I'm decorating my bike with chinchillas. But not the cute, fuzy kind. I'm talkin' zombie death chinchillas. The kind that say "count your fingers next time you take your hand out of that damn fur-lined mitten." Chinchillas of Doom. Chinchillas that will make a Kenworth back off four truck-lengths. Chinchillas that will make a left-turning soccer Mom brake so hard that the four SUVs behind her pile up into a solid block of Yuppite. Chinchillas that make Hanibal Lecter turn vegan.

You've been warned. La Chinchilla del Muerte is on the road.[sm=badbadbad.gif]

 

Hey its chocolate or vanilla. My buddy has the total ***** g skull set on his sftail custom. Just like the bike....he loves his softail I don't care for it, for ME. Same with the skulls. But he digs em. But hey wouldn't it suck if HD made ONE bike?? And it only had Smurfs on it? Heck I saw a pretty cool bob on this forum a few weeks ago that had spongebib on the tank. It actual worked for the bike....not for me, but. The only things that I guess I don't understand is doing the ENTIRE bike with skulls, from dipstick to tank and every bolt. jakeiniraq's tank is sweet but its the right amount of a cool thing.