"My favorite piece, which is the flames, was done by a good friend of mine named Jeff Tilman who owns a shop in California called Tattoo Deluxe. The inspiration for the flames coincides with my upper arms which are based on fish and ocean creatures and represents my sign Pisces. I was born on March 20th which is the cusp of Aries, a fire sign, so they symbolize both sides of my personality, fire and water."

"The coy fish [Japanese Koi carp] on my upper right arm is by my friend Wookie who works at Club Tattoo in Tempe, Arizona. It's an original that I drew."

"My first piece ever was the sleeve of my left arm, which is my Pisces. That was an original piece done by Jody at the same shop in Arizona."

"The ring finger on my left hand, which is my engagement band, was done by a friend named Derrick and was designed by my wife. She also has the same tattoo. The reason we have those is because I was too poor to purchase a ring. I had a good friend who owned a tattoo shop so I got these for free which was pretty cool."

"The pinkie on my right hand is my birth stone in a gold ring, that's the birth stone for March and was given to me as a gift on my birthday, my 21st I think."

"My back piece was also done by Derrick in Arizona and it's his interpretation of me on stage. He claimed that I have an overwhelming power to take over the audience and pull them in and he thought that I needed more then two arms to do that so he gave me six more."

"The piece on my calf was done by a gentleman named Dee who works at a shop in Jacksonville, Florida. I don't know the name of the shop, but he's an amazing artist and a very cool guy. He's become a good friend and did this piece for free..it was done on a whim and it's the only tattoo I've had done on a whim, but it's turned out to be one of my favorite pieces. It was done in the dressing room of the Hard Rock Live in Orlando, Florida."

"I was born in the year of the dragon so I have a dragon on my right calf."
(Samantha has the same tattoo on her back)

"I made a bet with Jeff Tilman that if we went platinum he had to do Linkin Park in old English across my lower back for free and we just went platinum."

Upbringing
"I was an ambivalent kid. I floated around, coasted through. I have two sisters and a brother and we're all half sisters and brothers from my parents' first marriages. It's interesting because none of us look alike. We have blonde hair, red hair, brown hair and we come in all shapes and sizes. We were a real good family until my parents split when I was 11. It really traumatized me only I didn't realize that until way after. By the time I was 14, I was into heavy drugs. At the same time, I discovered I wanted to be a musician."

High School
"School was interesting; in one hand I was nerdy and geeky but again I had friends who were part of the different cliques. I was never invited to parties directly but I always ended up at them because I came with the people who were wanted. I used to be a good student and an obedient kid but after the divorce, I couldn't care less what I did or what the consequences were."
"I've always been a good student and a person who grasps new things easily so homework was pointless because I understood it already. So I failed classes but they couldn't throw me out because my tests were perfect. The teachers actually hated me."

College
"I got on the bus and went straight to Arizona State University. I never enrolled because I couldn't afford it but since classes were held with 200-500 people in there - except for advanced philosophy, where there were 10 people - I got away with it. I think the philosophy guy knew, but he turned a blind eye because he enjoyed my presence."

Sexual Abuse
"No one in my family molested me. It was people who were around me. Coming from a broken home, it was easy to fall into thinking, "This is OK."

Drugs
"I was a lot more confident when I was high. I felt like I had more control over my environment when I was on hallucinogens or drinking."

Samantha
"I'm a pain in the ass and she's perfect."

Tattoos
"Tattoos are permanent and a life long commitment, the same as marriage. I figure if I'm gonna make a life long commitment with a person then I need to respect their boundaries. I've actually discussed every piece I've had done except the first because that was done before I met her [Samantha]. I'd definitely recommend tattoos for everyone, but just respect yourself and respect the idea of what you're doing to yourself."

Performing
"People who see me perform have one view. The thing I am on stage is all the elements that I don't like about myself. I'm angry, aggressive, and surly and I wouldn't give a second thought about spitting in your face on stage, but in the real world I wouldn't even dream of that. If I don't get an applause then I'm crushed."

Meaning behind 'Linkin Park'
"There's a Lincoln Park in every city in America. There's no real meaning behind our name. We just changed the spelling so that we could afford to buy the web domain name."

Connecting with the audience
"The most important thing to me is definitely connecting with people. Hopefully, the lyrics I write and the songs that I write will inspire people to do something or make them feel better or something. I think that if that happens, I have succeeded."

Designing clothes for Replicant
"So now I draw, design and make my own clothes, I'm not just purchasing it from a manufacturer and putting my name on it and selling it - I'm creating, like a painter or whatever, it's just another side of something I do, but fortunately I make money on it."

Religion
"I'm not a God-fearing Christain and certainly don't preach to people about what they should or shouldn't do. I definitely believe that there is somebody out there who put all this shit together. Something doesn't come from nothing, and that's a philosophical fact. I definitely think that I got a lot of strength from just believing in something, and it didn't really matter what it was."

Writing
"We definitely draw from experiences when we write, but when you actually listen, I can be singing a line or a verse and people will assume that it's me writing it and it could very well be Mike's lyric."

Violence in lyrics
"It's ridiculous to think that someone could hear lyrics to a song and take those lyrics to a level of violence. I think that if that person is going to act that way, they're going to do that without the music. There is obviously something that happened to that kid in his life that affected him a lot deeper than our lyrics."

Fans
"The kids who have the balls to hang out, I'm going to make sure they have their stuff signed, because that takes guts."
"We try to meet as many fans as possible. If we could meet everyone at the venue, that would be great, but sometimes it's impossible. I hope that they walk away thoroughly enjoying the band. And just become fans and enjoy the music that we make."

Rockstar Status
"I always wanted to be a rock star. That was my childhood dream. That's what I told everybody I was going to be when I grew up."
"It's really weird for me to be considered a rock star - I call myself Chester. People tell me that I am one, so I guess that makes me one. From an outside perspective, that's really cool and stuff, but it's really weird for me."

Singing
"This kid who was at our show a couple of days ago was asking me what effects I ran my vocals through. I was like, 'No dude, I don't do any of that shit! If I fuck up, you'll hear it'."

Chester on Chester
"I'm just a regular guy, you know. There's no leotard and cape under my clothes. I shit, I piss, I drink too much and throw up, just like everybody else."