When Travis Barker’s Daughter Covered Up His Face Tattoos, The Finished Look Left Him Stunned

Travis’ daughter, Alabama, grabbed her foundation balm and got to work. The results were quite the transformation. The pair had a good gab while the youngster worked, and it was all caught on video. Naturally, we shouldn’t be surprised that the burgeoning social media star also shared the story with her many followers on Instagram.

The clip makes for a sweet watch, as Travis submits to the tender ministrations of his teen daughter. It all makes for a lovely father-daughter moment. The video also shows the depth of his love for Alabama that he’ll let her mess with his tats. After all, they’re a really big part of how he presents himself to the world.

It’s not by any means the first time that Travis’ tattoos have featured in an Instagram video. A short while before, the Blink-182 skin-smasher filmed himself inking his own body. The tat read, “You’re so cool” – the name of Hans Zimmer’s lead track from the 1993 Quentin Tarantino-penned thriller True Romance.

That tattoo just happened to be written in a font that looked familiar to fans. Yes, it seemed to be a match for the handwriting of one Kourtney Kardashian! The reality TV superstar is Travis’ partner, and what better way to show that he’s into her than some new ink? And it seems Kourtney approved, commenting on the Insta story, “You’re so cool.”

It’s no coincidence that the quote comes from True Romance. The movie is Travis’ favorite, after all. And the rocker shared a secret about his daughter when he appeared in Young Hollywood on YouTube. Yes, she’s named after a character in the movie – Alabama Whitman – who’s portrayed by Patricia Arquette and narrates the film. 

If you were amazed that Travis tattooed himself, you probably shouldn’t be. He’s used to the process! His body is pretty much a map of his life laid out in ink. In his memoir Can I Say, Travis tells the world, “They’re all memories. They’re all experiences I went through.”

And the drummer has those memories inked all over. Travis told GQ that he thinks perhaps up to 70 percent of his body is covered. That’s after counting out ones that were damaged in a terrible accident in 2008 when a plane he was on crashed. Travis received extensive burns, which caused him to lose all the tattoos on his legs.

After the accident, Travis wanted to get tattooed as soon as possible. He told GQ magazine in August 2016, “Once I realized I’d lost two of my friends, I was like, ‘Can I get a tattoo artist to come in right now?’ I missed their funerals, so I guess I was looking for some kind of closure.”

Travis opted for a big piece on his back. He explained why to Vice in 2015, saying, “After the crash, Adam [DJAM] and I played a show. And I had my shirt off and some idiot took a picture of my back saying, ‘Look at all these burns on his back,’ and it kind of bugged me. So I just thought, ‘I’m just gonna tattoo my back. Let’s work on it again.’”

The superstar made an early start on body modification. He told Vice that he had marked his leg with his girlfriend’s name as a child. Travis said, “Yeah, I was 10 or 11, her name was Toni and I did it with a razorblade. I think it’s been covered with other tattoos now though.”

It was a few years later that Travis got his first legit tattoo. He decided to find out how painful the experience was, telling GQ, “I was skateboarding every day. So, I got a Bones tattoo and a Dag Nasty flame right on top of it. And then once I figured out it didn’t hurt, it was sort of a wrap after that.”

“Bones” had been Travis’ nickname due to his skinny frame, and Dag Nasty was a beloved hardcore band. But he lost both tattoos in the accident. Mind you, by the time that happened, Travis had plenty of other tattoos – even if he did also lose all the ones on his back when the skin was used for grafts.

One outcome of starting to get inked was that Travis’ sister snitched to his dad. It turned out that the rocker’s father was not as keen on tattoos as his son and told him if he repeated the dose, Travis would be out on the street. The rocker told GQ, “He said something that resonated with me, ‘You’ll have no Plan B. You have tattoos like that, and you’re [done]. You won’t be able to get a job.”

Well, that apparently suited Travis! He went on, “This is exactly what I want. I don’t want a Plan B. I don’t want a fall back. And I didn’t have anything to fall back on. We didn’t have money for college or anything. It really narrowed things down for me in the best way possible. Play music or die.”

And that certainly turned out to be a good plan A. Plus, Dad turned out not to mind. The two of them even got matching tattoos saying “pal,” which was a nickname they had for each other. For Travis, his dad is a crucial part of his life – helping him manage money and stay organized.

Family is important to Travis, and he showed that with the massive tat on his back. It’s a homage to his family, with portraits of mom, dad and his two children. He has a son – Landon – daughter Alabama and stepdaughter Atiana. And Travis told Vice that the tattoo took as long as 50 hours to complete!

Travis’ kids don’t only feature in his tattoos; they’re sometimes the artists, too! He has a section of thigh for them to “doodle” on if they happen to be around when he’s getting inked, according to GQ. Travis apparently started to allow it after saying no to Landon when he wanted his own needlework.

So, instead of risking jail by letting Landon get inked, he let the boy have free rein in drawing on him. The lad chose to write his name with a cross, an L and an A. Meanwhile, Alabama chose to use a heart as her motif. Travis told Vice, “There’s quite a bit of space left. I’m in trouble for a while.”

You’d think with so many tattoos, there’d be a few the drummer regrets having done? After all, Travis has the name of two ex-wives inked on his skin. And one is still there: his second wife Shanna Moakler. But, he told GQ, “It’s all memories.” And, Travis noted to Vice, “I actually only ever got the names of two girls tattooed.”

The aforementioned two have also been joined by a tasteful “Kourtney” tat, which he displayed in April 2021. And we’ve already mentioned the “You’re so cool” ink linked to Kourtney. If that wasn’t enough, he let the reality star write her own message on his body.

Yes, Kourtney wrote a simple “I love you” on the drummer’s arm. It sat on top of a tattoo that he already had there. And Travis was delighted with it – praising her needle skills in an Instagram post. The fans couldn’t agree more, either, with some of them demanding bookings at her parlor.

Of course, the other big female love of Travis’ life is Alabama. She followed him into the music world with her first single “Our House,” which came out in 2017. That wasn’t quite her debut in musicmaking, though. Alabama gained a credit for piano composition and playing on a track on Blink-182’s 2016 album California.

But a much bigger playground for Alabama can be found on social media. She’s a massive star on TikTok, for instance. More than a million people love to watch the teen and her buddies doing challenges. Not bad for someone who is still at high school, right? But that’s not the only place that you’ll find the young woman.

No, Alabama is also very visible on Instagram, and it was there that she posted the video of her giving dad a makeover. And yes, it proved a huge hit. More than three million people have viewed the clip at the time of publishing. Also, over 120,000 of them have clicked the like button, too.

In the video, Alabama is hanging with her dad, and she has her foundation brush at hand. The teenager is a brand rep for KVD Good Apple, so she clearly knows her way around a beauty product or two. In the meantime, dad waits patiently for her to start daubing.

It takes Alabama a couple of tries to settle on the right shade for her dad’s face. The first shade is Light 10, which proves to be a little bit too light. So she takes out Light 21, though this is also not right. So, it’s on to Light 015, and that hue seems to work. The first tattoo to disappear is the word “Blessed” that sits beneath one of Travis’ eyes.

As Alabama works, she starts to interview her dad. The teen asks him where his first tattoo is and then queries which is his favorite. Completely deadpan, Travis answers, “Probably the one that you just covered.” This earns him an “oh, dad” look – familiar to all fathers, we imagine. Anyway, there’s a quick cut and we’re back to work.

Alabama names her next target: the “handkerchief” on Travis’ other cheek. He has to set her straight, though. The rocker notes, “That’s an anchor, babe. Anchorchief.” This leaves them both in stitches, and Alabama rolls with it. She says, “I’m so sorry. We’re going to be covering his handker.” Dad then cries, “Anchor. It’s an anchor.”

The enjoyment of each other’s company is really visible in the clip, with the pair laughing together at each other’s jokes. When Alabama goes to cover over a neck tattoo, Travis jerks his head, leaving her squealing, “Dad!” So, she finishes off her work on his cheek and notes how good it’s looking.

Amazingly, the two tattoos have completely vanished, and Travis’ face looks quite different without them! Alabama notes in the caption on Instagram, “The coverage of this formula had us both shocked.” And they’re not the only people impressed. Most of the commenters loved how cute the pair were – rather than the power of the foundation.

One user wrote, “You guys should do more videos together! You’re both hilarious together!” That sentiment was echoed by another person, who commented, “So cute! Need more videos together!” And they weren’t alone, with many of the commenters expressing how highly they rated Travis’ parenting.

For example, one commenter didn’t hold back, writing, “What a great dad.” Another agreed, saying, “He’s such a good dad.” Meanwhile, one lovestruck user thought it was “the cutest thing ever.” All this adulation does pose an interesting question, though.

Could there be space for a Travis family reality TV show? It certainly seems like there might be the hunger for more of their antics. Mind you, Travis has had a taste of life under the eye of the TV camera before. He was actually the star of his own MTV show – Meet the Barkers – back in 2006.

It’s fair to say that the show was something of a disaster, though. Travis and ex Shanna Moakler both point the finger at Meet The Barkers when it comes to passing the blame for their eventual divorce. After the show – which ran for two seasons – their marriage collapsed into punchups, accusations of cheating and calls to the cops.

In Travis’ memoir, Shanna remembered, “I think the show destroyed our relationship.” She said that the drummer felt that it was redefining him as no longer a rocker. Shanna wrote, “I think he was afraid he was going to be looked on as a reality star. So, when the cameras stopped rolling, he distanced himself from me in every way that he possibly could.”

Travis didn’t quite see it that way, writing, “I felt like having the reality show changed Shanna character. [She] wanted to be an actress, and I felt she started doing things just for the cameras – for attention, or maybe it was just her dramatic personality.” The outcome, he felt, was a show that really didn’t reflect reality.

But, of course, Travis’ new partner is herself the star of a reality show. And Keeping Up With the Kardashians has also featured Travis as a guest. He actually turns up at her house in one episode from season 13. Their kids are having a playdate together, but watchers felt that the adults were having all the fun.

Travis also turned up to help Kourtney celebrate her 40th birthday, one fan claims. The former was seen sharing a bit of festive love as he helped the Kourtney clan put decoration on their gingerbread houses at Yuletide. You have to admit, though: it is not quite how you picture a tattooed rocker!

Travis is still very much a rockstar, of course. Blink-182 is still going strong, and in 2019 the band hit released an album called Nine. It came in with a bullet on the Billboard chart at number three and was a hit overseas, too. And in the same year, Travis launched his own record label, which features some top-notch hiphop. So, music clearly remains his home – at least for now.